HEAD coach of the Golden Jaguars Jamaal Shabazz has made a loud call on corporate Guyana to come on board and support his team’s quest to feature at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. 

Guyana will face St Vincent and the Grenadines in a home and away series next month but the top coach believes that the corporate world should take the opportunity to give back to a team that has proved their worth.
“I would have liked to see corporate Guyana step up a lot bigger in terms of buying into the programme,” Shabazz said in a recent interview with Chronicle Sport.
Since returning to the National team in January, Shabazz has piloted the Golden Jaguars to a record of two wins (St Lucia and Grenada), one draw (Barbados) and a loss (Suriname) in International friendlies.
Enticing players such as former Fulham FC defender Matthew Briggs and Bolton Wanderers’ Neil Danns to the National team, Shabazz revived the team that was defunct for close to two years to being one of the Caribbean’s most-talked-about unit.
“Of course we know football was riddled with controversy but I want to invite the corporate world to come before; don’t wait until we’ve made the journey, come now,” Shabazz said.
Since the installation of Guyana’s first-ever Normalisation Committee, football in Guyana has gone through much transformation.
The hiring of Shabazz and technical director Claude Bolton highlights a football programme that’s on the verge of revitalising the game, but the need for more than just the subvention given by FIFA is equally important.
“We need that support because the Normalisation Committee has been very brave. We see them spending money to make sure football is played. To me, that’s the reason why we have a football federation, to make sure football is played, but I want to ask the corporate world to come on board,” Shabazz noted.
He added “this is about resurrection; we have to rise back up a nation, as a people and one thing that has done that before is football, rather than any political party. From a football standpoint I’m pleased with the efforts of the players to compete and the pool we have to offer now, which is bigger.”

By Rawle Toney