“AS FAR as we are aware, the action or the response that Odinga Lumumba said via the media that he is threatening court action, will in no way threaten us or in no way hold the Kashif and Shanghai Organiszation accountable to any legal proceedings, with regard to the 22nd edition of our tournament.” Those were the words of Organising Secretary within the Organisation, Colin ‘BL’ Aaron, who took the time out from completing the fine-tuning of this year’s tournament yesterday, to speak with Chronicle Sport, with regard to an article published in another section of the media.
Such an article headlined “Alpha United threaten Court action over omission from Kashif and Shanghai tourney,” carried a sub-headline which stated ‘Lumumba says GFF in contravention of Court Order’ in which Alpha United were questioning their omission from the tournament, calling it unreasonable.
According to Aaron, the Organisation, which is led by Greg ‘Kashif’ Muhammad and Aubrey ‘Shanghai’ Major, reserves the right to invite who it chooses to compete in its tournament, since it is an invitational one, a fact highlighted by both Muhammad and Major in an earlier interview.
“For over 22 years, the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation have the right to invite who they chose to compete in their tournament which is an invitational one.
“More so, as a defending champion Alpha United would not be the first team who has won the title and was not invited to compete in the first tournament, since that has occurred twice before, wherein Doc’s Khelawlaas and Joe Public from Trinidad and Tobago, won the tournament in 1998 and 2006, but were never invited to defend their respective titles the following year,” said Aaron.
Aaron said the invitation was extended to Doc Khelawlaas to compete in 1998, since the organisers wished to uplift the standard of the foreign teams, to periodically enhance the development of the local clubs, who in turn cried out to us saying the foreign teams would walk away with the top prize.
“At no time at all during its 22 years of existence, did the K&S Organidation place the further development of Guyana’s football on the back burner of their organising stove, since they always looked at ways to help develop the world’s largest sport here in Guyana.
This tournament is about invitation along with the betterment and growth of Guyana’s football totally. In terms of this scenario, the K&S Organisation is being governed by the rules of the Guyana Football Federation, which in turn is being governed by CONCACAF, CFU and FIFA.”
He added, “For the past 22 years, we have been organising this tournament along those same guidelines and there were many teams who wanted to play during that period but were not invited, including, as I mentioned before, the two defending champions, so why this now?
Despite the unavailability of the defending champions to compete as a team, their players such as Anthony ‘Awo’ Abrams, Dwight Peters and Kris Camacho just to name a few, can compete as a guest player on any other team within the tournament, since we don’t have any issues with players, based on the guidance given to us by the GFF.
“Any of the teams who are participating in the tournament, have the free will and authority to use any player from a club that is not competing. We have no jurisdiction over the players and while we understand that some clubs are threatening their players if they do represent another team, we have no control over that. Our aim is to make this tournament a better one than last year, and we will.”
Asked to comment on the progress of preparations for the opening ceremony and kick off this Saturday at the world renowned Georgetown Cricket Club ground, Aaron said everything is going great to date, while the organisers are eagerly looking forward to Saturday.
“We are intensifying our preparations at this moment, when it comes to Saturday’s opening ceremony and kick off of the first match. We have almost everything in place, while the preparation of the field and the cleaning of the stands are ongoing as we speak,” stated Aaron.
He called on the clubs to stay focused and not be distracted by the numerous off-the-field occurrences that are taking place, remain committed to their training, as the winner would always be football at the end of the day, since no one is larger than the sport.