CAPTAIN of Guyana’s flagship football team known as the Golden Jaguars, Christopher Nurse, on Sunday last called for the resignation of the Guyana Football Federation’s (GFF) General Secretary Noel Adonis and his assistant George Rutherford.

Nurse sent out his plea via an email that was circulated to the media fraternity, saying both officials are responsible for the stagnation of the game in Guyana, showing gross incompetence in executing their duties, resulting in some players losing their jobs, while others lost their contracts.
Below is the full letter sent by Nurse, who can be considered Guyana’s most successful football captain to date;
“As players who have made tremendous sacrifices to represent Guyana we feel that the time has come for changes in the executive of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF). Two paid personnel Noel Adonis and George Rutherford are responsible for the stagnation of the game in Guyana.
They have shown gross incompetence in their secretarial duties, causing players to lose their jobs and risk their contracts. They are totally disconnected from the modern game and the administrative needs of modern football and are like leeches on the GFF not to mention the huge sums of money they receive for being incompetent.
They have no understanding of what is required for success from a performance perspective neither from an administrative perspective in today’s game.
Aubrey Major is the hardest working member of the GFF EXCO and has demonstrated a commitment to taking the game to another level, but his efforts and all reach to nought because of the incompetence of these two men.
As players we met with four members of the GFF EXCO in Houston Texas, prior to the Mexico game. The players refused to play the game based on numerous issues. A written agreement was reached enabling the fixture to commence. However behind our backs Mr Adonis and Mr Rutherford vetoed the agreement with little regard for how it will look in terms of their integrity and decency as men.
But what does Mr Adonis know about integrity? He has been suspended by the world governing body for football, yet instead of doing the decent thing and resign, he has continued to mismanage the GFF, frustrate players and staff and dictate to the Acting President who has shown great weakness in his tenure.
As players, we knew a different Frankie Wilson as a outspoken, people person when he was Vice President, now Executive and General Council members are telling us that he has become so weak, allowing Adonis and Rutherford to dictate and frustrate the game.
These two men receive fat salaries off the efforts of the players and cannot send letters to clubs and employers in time, what are they being paid to do? Shawn Beveney has lost his job in England, the Newton brothers have lost monies and Adonis has not had the decency to call and even ensure minimum compensation is meted out to these guys.
Players have gotten injured and paid medical bills out of their pockets and even have bills pending but he does not even return emails.
These two men are the same men that were used by former president Mr Klass to subjugate players and frustrate us. It is clear that the agenda for these two men is not for Guyana to win but to merely participate and the president is too scared to fire them as paid employees.
It is in the interest of Mr Adonis and Rutherford for the GFF/GFA issue to stay unresolved and drawn out so that Mr Klass will return from his suspension and then ban the GFA people.
On November 11, 2011 the Golden Jaguars defied all odds and defeated Trinidad and Tobago and made a historic entry in the semi-final round of the CONCACAF/FIFA World Cup Qualifying tournament.
Large sums of money were received in sponsorship that should have been invested back into benefits for the good of the game. Aubrey ‘Shanghai’ Major should not have to be running around begging for financial support for the national team today. It shows a total lack of vision, planning and poor execution.
In this regard the current crop of players do not want to play under the GFF that continues to employ two Secretaries who are totally incompetent at their jobs, who have run afoul of FIFA and have integrity issues hanging over their heads. These men have made their life, retired and now come as retirees to bleed football of its little benefits.
Guyana’s football cannot go forward with them and if the president does not see the need to review their tenure then he too will show that he says one thing out of office and does another when he is in office.
In 2008 the players performed a similar withdrawal from participation asking for the resignation of Colin Klass, who reversed the protest and banned all of the playing staff. Klass is currently banned from all football activity thanks to FIFA’s investigations.
Mr Adonis was also suspended as part of the same investigation. Now is the time to remove the remnants of Klass’ administration completely and begin afresh. Four (4) years later the players are staging the same action for the removal of the same staff from the Klass administration.
The players will keep the public informed on a weekly basis and bring documented evidence of the incompetence of the secretariat and how they have let down the game in Guyana. This is yet another occasion to rid ourselves of incompetence and put sport in Guyana on a solid footing.”