Part 1 Warning Signs: Addressing the Guyana Football Leadership Malaise

Nov 25, 2023 Features / Columnists, Sports

By Colin Benjamin

Global football in modern times is a multibillion dollar business. One can look at FIFA and European football to see the amount of American, Chinese, Middle East and Russian Oligarchs that have tried to buy the FIFA World Cups and own some of the world’s most famous clubs.

Considering football’s extreme popularity and high level of grassroots participation in Guyana, it is 100% clear the Guyana Football Federation is not in a position to maximize the nation’s potential in the world’s most popular sport.

Foundation Leadership failure

Having been lucky enough to experience the highest levels of Caribbean and CONCACAF football – watching from overseas the red light warning lights of GFF are too glaring to not call it out.

To understand GFF’s current predicament, the history is important.

In 2011, the unsuccessful 22-year tenure of Colin Klass’s GFF presidency ended in ignominy, with a FIFA ban during the cash-for-votes scandal.

Later in January 2013, a two-year-long squabble between the Guyana Football Federation and the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) was sorted by FIFA and CONCACAF. Then the short Christopher Matthias presidency and FIFA Normalization Committee implementation followed.

Modern GFF

Wayne Forde’s GFF presidential tenure since 2015 is the longest serving one since the dark days of Klass. Sports administration is judged by on-field success & the objective ones under Forde are:

Hiring Englishman Michael Johnson as coach leading the men’s team in qualifying for the 2019 Gold Cup
Hiring Dr. Ivan Joseph which led to the rejuvenation of diaspora talent in the Women’s programme
Men securing Nations league A promotion

However, that is a limited amount of tangible accomplishments in a 8-year term and it’s clear the majority of the football fraternity leading up to the upcoming GFF election on December 9 is not pleased with his time in office. If he was he wouldn’t have a challenger in Mr Franklin Wilson.

In modern professional sports there is no bigger “crisis communication” point for an organization than your own players losing faith and late payment.

The October 26 letter by players in Kaieteur Sport titled: “Golden Jaguars Wayne Forde Unprofessional” was a robust denigration of another Caribbean sports official. Change the team and that letter could have been cricketers calling out Cricket West Indies, Jamaica reggae girls on the JFF or Trinidad Soca Warriors on the TTFA.

What clearly promoted this response by players was Forde’s October 23 Kaieteur interview. Addressing the financial constraints of GFF, Forde said it cost the federation an “unprecedented” USD 870,338 to fund both the senior teams.

Men & women’s teams worldwide play simultaneously regularly – nothing “unprecedented” about that basic modern football federation dynamic.

The big picture though is I have been hearing these GFF money complaints my entire professional sports media life.

Those comments highlight the belief of many who have any involvement in Guyana football that the GFF is missing a major trick by not trying to leave CONCACAF for CONMEBOL like how Australia left OFC for the AFC Confederation.

Objective evidence suggests that financial realities to fund the men & women simultaneously won’t be improved by staying in CONCACAF under the leadership of Canadian president Victor Montagliani although he has done a lot to advance CFU football more than Caribbean men Jack Warner & Jeff Webb.

Global TV rights deals are the lifeblood of sports – what Guyana could gain from home matches in League A or potential 2026 World Cup qualifiers versus Mexico/USA, is unmatched by the possibilities of similar games against Brazil & Argentina.

In CONMEBOL the ladies have a better chance of getting to a World Cup – & although the men’s chances become almost impossible they could be as competitive as Venezuela are today due to regularly playing Brazil & Argentina and money derived for TV revenue to aid in grassroots and infrastructure development.

CONMEBOL could still say no – but access them & talk of GFF seeking more Corporate Guyana and government support would subside significantly.

Also following coach Jamal Shabbaz’s stunningly saying he would prefer Guyana to play matches away from home due to the poor state of Leonora’s stadium after the September 3-2 Nations League win vs the Bahamas – leads to some basic questions.

After seeing Hockey played at the Providence Stadium, why did President Forde say the focus to potentially ask authorities to use the venue solely based on if the men qualified for League A and not during the qualification campaign?

Why were the Lady Jags using Providence in ongoing Gold Cup qualifiers not mentioned?

The Daren Sammy Cricket Ground in St. Lucia has gotten CONCACAF approval, so why isn’t Providence so that the Golden Jaguars & Lady Jags can play at home?

Speaking about the Nations League two things can be true. League A promotion can be applauded, while equally acknowledging in Caribbean football context it has some insignificance with Trinidad & Jamaica beating USA and Canada.

Reality is the big prize right now for all CFU teams is the unique chance to play in Copa America next year. So the question is how after qualifying for Gold Cup 2019 did the Golden Jaguars slip back to not being in League A already?

By the time the GFF elections happen, the Lady Jaguars will likely qualify for the Women’s Gold Cup playoffs.

So maybe with both teams starting 2024 fresh with League A and Gold Cup football on-field action, off-field similarities should be replicated with a fresh presidential tenure under Franklin Wilson, for the simple reason that 8 years is long enough for any sports leader to run their race then pass the baton.

(Colin Benjamin served as GFF Communications Officer during the 2014 World Cup qualifiers. He has also served Cricket West Indies, Canada Soccer & W Connection FC Trinidad)

Colin Benjamin, European, FIFA, Guyana Football Leadership, Malaise

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