Matthias, GFF executives out!
FIFA Head of Member Associations, Premo Cavaro, (right) and CONCACAF’s Director of Legal Affairs Marco Leal address the media at the Pegasus Hotel yesterday on their new plans for the Guyana Football Federation.
FIFA Head of Member Associations, Premo Cavaro, (right) and CONCACAF’s Director of Legal Affairs Marco Leal address the media at the Pegasus Hotel yesterday on their new plans for the Guyana Football Federation.

… FIFA appoints Normalisation Committee to run Guyana’s football until September 2015

AS PROMISED in the communiqué sent to the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) on Thursday, October 9, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Head of Member Associations, Premo Cavaro, and CONCACAF’s Director of Legal Affairs, Marco Leal, announced last evening that a Normalisation Committee will run Guyana’s football until September 2015. 

The governing body’s ruling means that the Christopher Matthias-led Executive has been disbanded and will have no place in football administration in the Land of Many Waters.
The five-member committee, according to Cavaro, will be made known within the next three days and, their sole responsibility, apart from managing the day-to-day activities of the country’s football, will be to adopt the new constitution of the GFF, amend the current one and to organise elections according to the new constitution.
“The Normalisation Committee, has the same power and duty like the executive committee; it’s exactly the same, but nominated by FIFA – that’s the difference, meaning the Chairman of the Normalisation Committee will have the same power like the president of the GFF. He will be the one responding to FIFA as president,” Cavaro said.
“We hope that everyone involved in the wrangles will put everything aside now, knowing that there’s a new era. Whatever happened will be different in the future. We will not accept any more disputes on who is representing GFA or Linden FA, it shouldn’t be the case,” Cavaro firmly said.
Cavaro, whose duty in FIFA is to make sure that all member associations and affiliates are governed in accordance with the FIFA statues, said that while the country awaits the appointment and installation of the Normalisation Committee in a few days, “things will be the same like it has been where nothing was doing.”
Cavaro didn’t state where the members of the committee would come from but mentioned, “They are not from the GFF. Four of five are from Guyana. Either from Guyana or deeply rooted. We have avoided having the GFF or members of the GFF a part of the committee. We want neutral people, far from football and a commitment to Guyana because this is a commitment to Guyana and not football.”
Selective affiliates of the GFF, namely Georgetown Football Association, East Bank Football Association, East Demerara Football Association, West Demerara Football Association, National Association of Women’s Football, Guyana Football Referees Council and Guyana Football Coaches Association, formed two-thirds of the General Congress.
On May 31 last, they passed a ‘No Confidence’ vote against Matthias, but that decision was eventually overturned by FIFA.
But upon acting on the directives given by FIFA and holding their Extraordinary Congress, again, another ‘Walk Out’ was staged by the aforementioned affiliates.
Marco Leal, along with FIFA’s representative and president of the Bahamas Football Federation Anthone Sealey and CONCACAF’s Legal Adviser Bruce Blake, was present at the ‘Walk Out’ as such, giving FIFA a firsthand experience at the lawlessness that persists in the country’s football.
Leal, yesterday noted, “It must be stressed that usually in this situation, the magnitude of disparity in a country’s football happens, a normalisation committee is not the first option, it’s suspension, but in this case, after discussions between us at FIFA and CONCACAF, we believe that football can move forward in the country and we hope that the installation of a Normalisation Committee could be the solution.”
He added “Let’s hope that the tasks and the work done by the Normalisation Committee with the help of the whole football family can restore harmony in Guyana’s football because we don’t want to discuss what consequences of not achieving this objective would be.
This Normalisation Committee is not elected by the Congress (of the GFF) but appointed by FIFA so this body cannot be removed internally; FIFA appoints it and FIFA removes and this is a show of faith in Guyana’s football.
According to Leal, the installation of the committee should not be seen as a move of retaliation by FIFA, but simply a way of moving Guyana’s football forward and the development of the sport.
With the Normalisation Committee to be installed, a stern warning was made by Cavaro to the disruptive elements in football to desist or face sanction.

(By Rawle Toney)

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