PRESIDENT of the Pele Football Club (PFC) Cecil Jacques, yesterday dispelled all rumours about his team participation in this year’s Banks DIH-sponsored Georgetown Football Association’s (GFA) Banks Beer President’s Cup.

Pele are set to participate in the Kashif and Shanghai Football tournament and would begin their quest to capture the $4M first prize on Sunday, December 16 against Buxton Stars at the GFC ground.
Speaking exclusively with Chronicle Sports last evening, Jacques in fact condemned the GFA and their sponsors for wanting to lure the club’s senior members in playing, for the want of enhancing the image of their tournament.
“They offered the players whom I wouldn’t name, as much as $800 000 to play in the tournament and that’s even before they kick a ball, but I’m making it known that Pele will not be playing in the GFA tournament. I told them (the players) who want to leave, go ahead but they are consequences that come with doing so,” said Jacques.
According to the Club’s president, the players named a very senior Banks official and GFA Executive who made the offer which he labelled as unethical and unprofessional.
“I want to condemn the Banks official that the players said who made the offer and the GFA executive because such things are bringing division in football; causing more harm than good. But over my dead body, Pele will not be playing in that tournament,” Jacques exclaimed.
He pointed out that his remarks are not a personal attack on the GFA or their tournament sponsors, but mainly to point out that it’s not principle to make such advancements to members of another team that are not part of their tournament.
“We are not going to be dragged into the whole dispute that’s happening right now, our club just like the previous years committed to play in the Kashif and Shanghai tournament since we fall under the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and that should be respected. I will not name the officials from GFA or Banks DIH, but they have no right making contact with my players or team and I find it rather upsetting,” Jacques noted.
Pele, is said to be one of Guyana’s oldest football clubs at 40 years old, founded in 1972. The club has the likes of Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson, one of Guyana’s and the Caribbean’s top strikers, as well as Konata Manning, Travis ‘Zorro’ Grant and several others of the country’s leading players.
The team has only captured one Kashif and Shanghai title, winning in 2008 against Sunburst Camptown, while they have also finished as runners-up four times with last year being the most recent.