GFF-NAMILCO Thunderbolt Flour Power/Intra Association U17 Season 2 Unveiled “We are in for the long term” – NAMILCO’s MD, Bert Sukhai

Feb 27, 2019 Sports

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By Franklin Wilson

There was lots of pomp during yesterday’s simple but significant ceremony to launch the 50th Anniversary which is the second edition of the Guyana Football Federation- National Milling Company of Guyana, Thunderbolt Flour Power, Under-17 Intra Association Tournament in the boardroom of NAMILCO, Agricola, East Bank Demerara.
Sharing the head table were Managing Director of NAMILCO Mr. Bert Sukhai, Finance Controller Mr. Fitzroy McLeod, Operations Manager Mr. Ralf Hemsing, GFF President Mr. Wayne Forde, Technical Director Mr. Ian Greenwood and Competitions Director, Mr. Ian Alves.
Chairing proceedings was the effervescent, Affeeze Khan.
In feature remarks, Sukhai stated that this year’s edition of the tournament is special, given the fact that the company is celebrating 50-years of existence in Guyana, having been born in 1969.
He informed that the company originated out of the USA – Seaboard Corporation – NAMILCO being the second Mill outside of the USA to be constructed, the other being in Sierra Leone in West Africa, the former, still in operation.

For this historic year, Sukhai noted that this U-17 tournament would be incorporated into most of the company’s activities.
“I would say we did reasonably well in the first leg, I see some successes coming out of it and I’m seeing now more of Guyana being on the international front playing games. It’s good to see that out of the under-17 we have footballers who are playing internationally and that was one of our objectives when we started.”
Sukhai, offered commiserations to President Forde and his committed team for moving the game forward, pointing out that the strategic plan is being followed.
“There will be hiccups along the way, I know our first leg didn’t go too smoothly but based on the assurance I’m getting now we will see things moving at a faster pace in the second leg. We have committed ourselves for five-years; NAMILCO is here for the long term and when we make a commitment, we keep it.
I want to wish you guys well in terms of your planning and ensuring it’s executed properly down to lowest level. You have to be on top of things to keep it going, all your RMA’s have to be fully alert to what their responsibilities are and what we expect of them.”
Pointing out that NAMILCO is the leading local investor in local football; GFF President reminded that the five-year partnership is worth over 30-Million dollars. He alluded that it is fitting that the game is taking center stage during such an auspicious year for NAMILCO.
“At the GFF we understand very clearly that unless we invest consistently over time, we will not be able to impact the development of football and development of our players to the extent that we wish to. The partnership with the NAMILCO is recognition of that fact.”
Forde also stated that the relationship with the company takes on the status of pioneering, positing that the U17 tournament is the first multi-year contract in the history of Guyana’s football.

“The GFF, NAMILCO Flour Power U17 League is the largest financial commitment from any corporate entity to football, thirty plus million dollars over the five-year period. This tournament was the first officially sanctioned tournament in region one where we played a male and a female version, last year.”
He summed up that several new grounds were broke with this competition pointing out that one of the benefits derived is that Guyana is now ranked at #18 among the 41-Concacaf members at the Under-17 age group level.
“And now that we have a home of football, we’re going to do everything within our means to prepare the U-17 team that would be drawn from the intra association tournament so that when we come up against the teams that we are matched against for the world cup qualifiers, we can represent Guyana and the company that has made this all possible, with distinction.”
Forde challenged all Regional Member Associations (RMA) to make use of the opportunity given them to develop players at this level.
“Clearly some of our members have seized the opportunity and they have delivered consistently on executing the programme, some have struggled and some require a little bit more support.”
With a view to assisting RMAs to maximize on the opportunity, Forde disclosed that the GFF’s Technical and Competitions Departments have developed workshops that would be conducted before kick-off of the respective leagues where the competition organizers and other key personnel will be targeted to improve their knowledge and understanding of organising competitions.
“We want to deliver a tournament that is worthy of the investment and the commitment that the National Milling Company has made and in order to do that, every member has to raise their game. Let me just say once more a heartfelt thank you to the management and staff of NAMILCO and I wish our partnership every success in years to come.”
Alves, during his presentation shared that the first year of the tournament saw a total of 514 matches being played with 1033 goals scored at an average of two goals per match.
“By all indications, this tournament contributed tremendously to youth development of football in Guyana. In one single tournament we were able to successfully influence Guyana’s performance at the youth level at international tournaments since the majority of players came from playing with the national U17 tournament.”
Alves pointed out that the company’s contribution is therefore immeasurable. Intra Association action will get cracking in the second week of next month and will run until July when the inter-association playoffs will take center stage where all the champions will meet to determine the national champion.
TD Greenwood also shared remarks and focused on the GFF’s Youth Development Strategy and what the tournament means for youth development in Guyana.
“The majority of our national U-17 players come directly out of the NAMILCO League and they have done very well. This year, we have the world cup qualifiers coming up in May and because Guyana is now ranked 18th in Concacaf which is a massive jump up, means we’ve been pushed into the final rounds so in May we’re playing Haiti, Honduras and El Salvador. Obviously it’s a tough group but its shows the work that is being done at the U-17 level that has impacted our recent ranking.”
This year’s NAMILCO Intra Association will present more opportunities for the GFF Technical Department to scout more talent to ensure the best players make up the national team for the WC qualifiers.
“If we have these programmes running for four, five, six years we’re going to see a real conveyor belt of players being developed at every single age group and that is the only way that we’re going to really develop.”

 

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