Former NC head admits to a contract with Elite Clubs
Former Normalisation Committee head Clinton Urling
Former Normalisation Committee head Clinton Urling

… calls for negotiations and compromises

By Ras Wadada

FORMER chairman of the FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee (NC), Clinton Urling, has dismissed assertions by president of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) that there was never any contract between the original eight Elite Clubs and the Federation.Urling, who is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Sports Management at Colombia University in New York, was head of the NC that initiated the Elite league last year.
In recapping for Chronicle Sport, via the telephone, Urling insisted that a contract was signed by both parties.
“Chairman of the committee for the Introduction of the Elite League, Tariq Williams and then Technical Director of the GFF, Claude Bolton, met almost weekly with the eight identified Elite Clubs in the initial engagements.
“Ironically, Mr Forde who is now president of the GFF was a part of all those discussions and they mutually agreed in the end to all the terms and conditions of the Rules of the Elite League.
“This is semantics in the sense that if me and you enter into a written agreement which all 8 clubs signed off on, and the agreement listed all the rules and regulations, the prize moneys, no relegation and promotion until after two years, no expansion and all the other things, which all the parties had to agree upon after several rounds of discussions, it is a contract because they all agreed and signed off.
All the clubs agreed, including Fruta Conquerors which was then headed by Wayne Forde. I am not a lawyer, but if you as the regulatory party and the eight clubs accept the rules and signed off, that’s a contract. If the GFF wants to breach the contract and they are arguing that it’s not a contract, that agreement exists. The agreement is not a figment of someone’s imagination.
“The GFF has the authority to regulate all football but they do not have the authority to infringe or alter agreements at their own whims and fancies. These things have to be done in a professional environment where rules, agreements and contracts are respected,” Urling pointed out.
“The GFF needs to be on the offensive and stop being on the defensive on this issue, and all it requires is simple dialogue, negotiating and compromising, the same way the NC did it last year working with all the clubs to complete our mandate.
“We succeeded because of our engagements with the clubs and that was supreme and salient for us – dialogue, negotiating and compromising – going back and forth, even at the last minute, to change some of the rules and agreements that we mutually agreed upon.
And this present GFF administration needs to go back to the past and see that positions where you are butting heads have not resulted in anything good. It has stagnated the game to the extent FIFA had to intervene and install a NC. The GFF must have the culture, spirit and willingness to dialogue and negotiate, not to impose their will,” Urling suggested.
Urling thinks the idea of expanding the League is a good move and says he would endorse it once he can evaluate it as being economically viable. He further added it might very well be what the League needs at this stage.
“The expansion could very well be the most exciting thing for the League and maybe it is the injection to create excitement, but again it comes back to doing it in a professional manner. It must be done constitutionally which would require a Congress. There are lots of issues to consider and clear out of the way and every MA must be involved in the process.”

 

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