SPORTS VIEW BY NEIL KUMAR
THE football fraternity in Guyana and particularly sponsors of football tournaments in Guyana were shocked and amazed to hear that Guyana put together a ‘pick-up’ team in just one week and catapulted them to go and play in an International tournament.

“What a Shame!” was the reverberating sound that buzzed in my ear as I received a call from my good friend and eminent former National Athlete Andrew Forsythe from the mining town, Linden.

MANAGER
The manager of the team, whom I will not name and who is certainly a victim of the Mafia Football Politics, in an exclusive interview to selected sections of the press said that the 20-man touring party was drawn from clubs that do not teach basic football.

“So when they come to the National Grid they (players) don’t have the technical knowledge, so we have to start from the beginning, teaching them the basics of the game.”

The comments are certainly a slap in the face of Colin Klass and the football administration in this country. Imagine, the head of a National delegation said that our footballers who are all over twenty years old and playing the game for more than one decade do not know the ‘basics’ of the game.

This comment is surely an insult to all those players who are presently in our National team. Further, it is an insult to the honourable game, football.

The manager lamented the fact that preparations for the tournament only started one week ago. He was quick to explain that one week of preparation was not enough preparation time for such a tournament.

“This Parbo Bier Cup Tournament” is a Bi-annual Tournament that involves regional football teams. The clubs, sub-associations and the Guyana Football Federation knew about this tournament for more than a year, and a National effort should have been put in place to select a National team.

FITNESS
The manager of the team said the team’s fitness is suspect since they were not encamped for a long enough period of time. Those responsible for this are those same people who were crying out only a few weeks ago that all team sports must have encampment.

However, I was informed that even the very few days that the footballers were together, there was serious discontent. Food, water, transportation, accommodation and the training all were put in place hurriedly and the players questioned the preparation.

Most of the time the players were arguing why only some people were selected and others were not. We received bitter complaints about the non-inclusion of several players including this country’s best and most senior striker Dwight Peters. The football fraternity must have an explanation why some of our better players were not selected.

GEORGETOWN CLUBS
The manager said that most of the 20-member team were drawn from Georgetown clubs. What happened to the very skilled players from the interior Mr Klass informed the nation of? So, why is it that the Guyana Football Federation made no attempt to even look at the players from the greater part of our country?

BERBICE AND ESSEQUIBO
The time is most opportune for us to ask the same question that was asked by sections of the Press to Colin Klass. Berbice and Essequibo men are not good? This nation needs an explanation to answer the question of who knows about football and whether the men in Essequibo and Berbice are not suitable. The big question however, is how the US$250 000 is being spent annually for the development of football in this country, Guyana.

GOVERNMENT
The Government is on record to be working in the interior to further the development of sport in all the regions. The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport can boast that for several years we have consistently been bringing out a team which received special coaching from the National Sports Commission coach and encampment facilitated fully to play in the Kashif and Shanghai annual football tournament. It cannot be denied that the Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry and the NSC football coach visited the interior and had organised competitions. Further, the NSC has already for this year sponsored Mashramani and Independence Football programmes in the interior.

There is also a hectic sports programme that is scheduled for Amerindian Heritage Month in September. The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport/National Sports Commission, along with the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, will be overseeing the success of the sports programme.

Only recently Banks DIH, one of the better sponsors of football in this country launched the street football programme and put their money behind the success of the programme. The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport Interward Football Tournament was indeed a huge success. Further, we must compliment Courts Guyana Limited for sponsoring the ‘Pee Wee’ Under-11 competition. The media in particular must be complimented for giving exposure to these youths at such a young age. Let us hope that they learn the basics while playing in the Courts Pee Wee Competition.