ALPHA United and the NaMilCo Football Festival suffered a severe blow yesterday when the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) caused the country’s top team and also defending champions of the said tournament to withdraw after progressing to the semi-final round on Wednesday night. Chronicle Sport received a letter forwarded from Marlan Cole, president of the host club Fruta Conquerors, which he received from Alpha United president Odinga Lumumba that stated the reason for their withdrawal and his gratitude for inviting his team to the event.
The opening paragraph of the letter stated: “Alpha United Football Club has returned to the fold of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and as a result the club can only participate in football that is sanctioned by the federation”.
It went on to say that if the club is to continue to participate in the tournament the sponsor, the National Milling Company, or Fruta Conquerors will have to seek permission for the GFF.
The letter was copied to General Secretary of the GFF, Noel Adonis, and Deputy General Secretary George Rutherford.
Lumumba has once again called a press briefing which will take place today, seemingly to have his two bits to say about the situation.
According to a release from the executives of the Fruta Conquerors, Riddim Squad will now advance to the semi-final round.
It read: “Under the circumstances, we are forced to re-enter team Riddim Squad, the most recent team that Alpha United F.C. played against.
“Riddim Squad will now face Beacon Football Club at 19:00hrs in the first semi-final match on Sunday, February 26 at the Tucville Ground”.
Meanwhile, the competition continued last night with the other semifinalists being decided when Fruta Conquerors battled with the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) in the curtain-raiser then the night wrapped up with the Guyana Defence Force versus Santos.
On Wednesday night, Alpha United and Beacon United made it into the semi-final round with victories over Riddim Squad and Camptown.
Starting the night was the 1-0 defeat of Riddim Squad by the defending champions then Sunburst Camptown suffered an upset at the hands of Beacon United in the feature game as they prevailed on penalty kicks.
Riddim Squad put forth a performance to match the score line of how the match ended. Trying to match skills against Guyana’s top side, they deserve a pat on the back for containing the side which have been known to demolish the weaker opponents.
But the upcoming Riddim Squad team seemed to have lost focus for a few seconds which allowed Alpha’s Clive Andrews to gain the lead for his side at the brink of halftime.
However, in the second half, Alpha United found themselves unable to penetrate Riddim Squad’s defence and the match eventually ended with Alpha still ahead by one at regulation time.
In the other showdown, Beacon held Camptown to a nil-all showdown until regulation time and sent the match into extra time.
Extra time saw the underdogs Beacon, draw first blood five minutes into the first half thanks to Dellon Cadogan, but Orlando Gilgeous gained the equaliser for Camptown to keep their hopes alive. However in the penalty shootout Beacon were victorious.