GFF announces ‘Return to Play’ for all Regional Associations

Apr 30, 2022 Sports

– Four RA Leagues to be launched

The GFF President had a progressive meeting with all of the Regional Associations on Friday.

Football’s governing body, The Guyana Football Federation (GFF), continues to surge ahead since the pandemic restrictions have been lifted. On Friday, the Federation added another historic moment in their attempts to levitate the level of the sport throughout the nation.

The heads of the Regional Associations following their meeting with the Guyana Football Federation at the GFF Training Centre, Providence.

The simple briefing included the Presidents of all nine Regional Associations namely the Bartica Football Association (BFA), Berbice Football Association, East Bank FA, Essequibo Coast/Pomeroon FA, East Demerara FA, Georgetown FA, Rupununi FA, Upper Demerara FA and West Demerara FA.
President of the GFF, Wayne Forde, disclosed that the Federation plans to play four Leagues during the remaining months of the official football season. All the events commence in May.
These tournaments are: the Regional Association Senior Men League (May 15), GFF Women Development League (May 12), NAMILCO U17 Boys League (May 21) and the Blue Water Under-15 Girls Development League (May 15).
According to Forde, these Competitions will be official launched in a few days by their Regional Associations and the GFF Competition Department in collaboration with the Sponsorship partners at which the details of each competition will be made available.
The GFF Competitions team has been working closely with the Regional Associations to support the planning and preparation for Senior Male League. At the moment there is in excess of 115 Clubs registered, the RFA leads with 26 Clubs and the GFA is second with 16 Clubs.
In alignment with the GFF Club Charter programme, all Clubs across our 9 Regional Associations are being deemed “Category Three Clubs” with the exception of the 10 Elite League Clubs. Once these Regional Association Clubs completes the registration process, they receive four Size 5 balls, 25 Cones and 12 bibs.
An encouraging 90% of all clubs in Guyana have already completed registration. GFF aims to create history by having all 9 Regional Association Leagues kicked off simultaneously on May 15.
Following that, the GFF Champions Cup, that will include the respective RA League Champions and the first runners up, will unfold in August as a straight knock out tournament. The winner will be crowned the National Champion.
The GFF Boss also said, “This Season will be of no consequence to the promotion or relegation of Clubs and is mainly to aid the preparation and capacity building efforts we are undertaking at Regional Association for the smooth rollout of the 2023 Season, which will kick off in September of this year and will see the return of the Elite League and a more structured Regional Association Male and Female competition programme.”
The heads of the RA were very appreciative of the Governing body’s drive in trying to keep football at the fore. A few explained the painstaking challenges their association and players faced during the pandemic and elated to seize the opportunity to return to play.