… Warner, Klass and Boys believe Women’s football is future of the sport
THE three-day Guyana Football Federation (GFF)-organised FIFA Com-Unity Seminar ended yesterday with the view that Women’s football is the future world’s number one sport.
It was the second time that the seminar was held in Guyana with the first being in October of 2007, but this time around, it focused entirely on Women’s participation in the game. The seminar which was conducted by FIFA Developmental Officer Daryl Warner, along with FIFA Communications Officer Michael Boys, was geared at enhancing the awareness of Guyanese with the private and government sectors, that football, in this case Women’s, is growing to become one of the games fastest growing marketable tool.
Over the three days, the course touched on three topics; relation management, communication and publication and marketing.
“It was an interactive session and the interest was very high, because every day we had like 35-38 persons in attendance which is very good,” said Warner adding, “What I’m more pleased about is the interest shown by the sponsors and the government. I’m happy for that and what we want to do is to work with the Education Ministry to get Women’s football back in schools.”
Warner, son of FIFA vice-president Jack Warner also commented on the interest shown by the Ministry of Sport which was represented by Director Neil Kumar and Parliamentary Secretary Steve Ninvalle, while Minister Dr Frank Anthony was not available. He was very much involved through his testimonial.
The seminar this year is held under a similar contrast as it did in 2007 when the Men’s National team had just obtained a 90 World Ranking by FIFA and now it’s Women’s National team who had created history by qualifying of this year’s Gold Cup.
It was against this backdrop that the 2010 GFF/FIFA Com-Unity Seminar was held to help the sports local governing body to build on the Lady Jaguars success in the Caribbean.
Boys, who hails from Chile, explained that statistics have shown that Women’s Football is growing not only in Guyana, but also around the world. Every member association affiliated to the world governing body Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), has been either strengthening or developing their Women’s football product.
With him, Boys brought a wealth of experience to the Seminar having been in the communication sectors for a number of years with his most recent outing being at the FIFA World Cup, held recently in South Africa.
Warner explained that at present they are approximately 45 million registered female players around the world and the various associations are mandated by FIFA to spend at least 15% of their grant on Women’s development.
It was also disclosed that only the Cayman Islands and Anguilla spend more than Guyana as it relates to Women’s football with the GFF using 36% of its US$250 000 grant on its programme.
Meanwhile, GFF president Colin Klass is highly optimistic that after the Com-Unity Seminar, given the fact that the corporate entities who attended the three-day course have more than pledged their support after grasping a better understanding of how important Women’s Football is, things will certainly change course.