Year End Football 2021 and its Success

Jan 15, 2022 Sports

Letter to the Sports Editor

Dear Sports Editor,

Kaieteur News – The year 2021 concluded with a bang when the Guyana Football Federation/Kashif & Shanghai/Women Football Association completed their yearend football tournaments in glorious fashion. Mr. Editor these three (3) tournaments were incident free and sticking to the Covid 19 Guidelines, it was only in the Finals of the Futsal that we saw breach in the Protocol Guidelines with the attendance which was unavoidable, social distancing was not there but all throughout the tournament all Protocols were observed and as the saying goes one (1) swallow don’t make a summer.
However, as a football fan and sports enthusiast, I would like to look at an issue that raised its ugly head recently in the media.
The main opposition party is trying to score cheap political points by mixing up Sports and Politics, Mr. Editor they have other major issues to deal with in their party but they have dragged in the wonderful game of football in their tangle. They are accusing the Government of ignoring the breaches of Covid protocols at the Futsal Final which we all know is a fabrication.
Mr. Editor I am a man about, I have visited the malls in Guyana and it is constantly packed to capacity but no word of condemnation is being said about that, remember Georgetown is the opposition strong hold and they don’t want to fluster their supporters by condemning their behavior, the mini buses are also filled on a daily basis, the markets are packed with people shopping, the supermarkets are also filled yet the main opposition has not commented on such. But because the organisers are aligned to the Government they get this blow below the belt. Maybe this is personal, remember the accuser and the organisers are all Lindeners, there may be more in the mortar than the pestle.
As a perquisite to hosting of this tournament, one of the main criteria is that every player, official and spectator must be vaccinated before they entered the venue. I was at almost all the matches and the task force were at all the games enforcing with strict rigidity the protocols.
Approximately 1000 players, dozens of officials and thousands of spectators participated in the 3 tournaments with every one of them being vaccinated. By hosting the tournament, it encouraged hundreds of persons to be vaccinated a policy that is being implemented all over the world, in the developed countries, in the third world countries also and in the not too developed countries. Hosting of such tournaments assisted in ensuring that the population entered the safety zone by being vaccinated.
Mr. Editor, one notable Member of Parliament, a prominent figure in society was in Linden discouraging persons from taking the vaccine. He was on a campaign to discredit the procedure. Instead of encouraging persons he was putting doubts in their mind. That is proof of double standards.
I saw in the Tuesday edition of the Daily Kaieteur News What Peeping Tom said and he was spot on, no one could have done a better job in explaining the predicament that the organisers were faced with. Mr. Editor, the evidence is clear that people are starved for clean, incident free and safe entertainment and they went in their numbers to be vaccinated so they could be part of the entertainment. Football fans are aware of the risk involved in being in a crowded area, hence they had on their mask along with getting vaccinated.
If the opposition was in Government I am sure they would have implemented such rigidity in ensuring that the population was safe from the deadly virus and it baffles me that these same officials could and would deter persons from taking the vaccine. Politics as they say is a strange career to be in, today it right and tomorrow it wrong.
Kudos to the GFF and K&S Organisation for putting on a great show for us the entertainment starved population for the year end activities. The mere fact that they went out in their thousands is testimony of what I alluded to.
In closing, I urge the political parties to come together and see how we can prevent the Covid pandemic to be constrained from spreading, not to use a specific purpose which the opposition hopes will gave them cheap political points, or attempt to attack some specific persons whom have done great for Guyana in their specific area of expertise.
Have a pleasant day and let wisdom prevail.
Thank you,
Henry Pestano.

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