THE Guyana Football Federation (GFF) yesterday unveiled the country’s newest Technical Director – Canadian Claude Bolton, who will serve in the position over the next four years.

“The potential for Guyana’s football is immense, I wouldn’t call it a sleeping giant yet but we still haven’t tapped where we can go as a country.
Many people here in Guyana understand that football should be a tool of social development and very clearly can be,” Bolton said at a Press Conference hosted at the GFF’s Head Office in Georgetown.

Chairman of the GFF Normalisation Committee Clinton Urling told the room full of journalists, that Bolton, a Chartered Professional Coach (ChPC) in Canada brings with him over 15 years of professional coaching and technical experience.

“He is among those that have achieved some of the highest certification levels in North America. He holds a United States Soccer Federation National “A” License, a Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) “B” License, and a English Football Association International Coaching Licence. In addition, he holds National “A”, Goalkeeping, Fitness, and Youth licenses from the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), and also holds a National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) National Advanced Youth Certificate,” Urling said, while reading out Bolton’s ostensibly impressive résumé .

It was stated, that the GFF received a total of eight applications from as far as Germany and England with some of Europe’s top guns all interested in working with the Golden Jaguars, but in the end, it came down to four – Bolton, Guyana’s Linden France, Trinidad and Tobago’s Rajesh Latchoo and Englishman Kevin McGreskin.

Normalisation Committee Member Tariq Williams said that the selection process was as transparent as it could’ve been and the GFF interviewed the shortlisted applicants and “based on the evaluation criteria set out in the terms of reference, we did some calculations and Mr. Bolton emerged as the clear cut runner for that position, thereafter an offer was made, which he duly accepted and that has led us to the position we’re in now were he’s employed by the GFF”

But Williams further pointed out that even after the appointment of Bolton to the Technical Director position, there were applications from highly certified personnel, mostly from within the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Urling added that there were some cases where the persons who weren’t shortlisted in the final four were because of their high asking price.

Meanwhile, Urling said that Bolton is expected to work within the FIFA requirements and outlines for every National Association Technical Director.

“They are four pillars, set by FIFA, the first one being football for all, coach’s education, elite football and research in football topics. The first two – the ones that deals with football for all and coach’s education – those are the ones essential criteria that should be given priority by the Technical Director.
The TD is the architect for all things technical and development of the country’s football, all things fall under him, the coaches and everyone because according to FIFA, the national director cannot under any circumstances be the national coach and that’s something we intend to keep,” Urling said.

He further stated “I see the Press People saying the success of the TD depends on how well we do at the World Cup qualifiers and if you go far, that’s the success of Claude; we wouldn’t be judging Claude based on how far our National Team goes this year, but we’ll be judging based on how well he implements the developmental programme at Guyana’s Football.
The National Team coach prepares for the next Game while the National Technical Director prepares for the 2018 and2022 World Cup and more long term developmental programmes for our Football.”
Written By Rawle Toney