MINISTER of Sport Dr Frank Anthony yesterday said that he is in the process of penning a letter to the football world governing body FIFA seeking their involvement in bringing the dispute between the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and its affiliate the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) to an end. It’s been over 18 months since the GFA has stepped aside from the GFF, with the feeling that the local authority on the sport is suppressing its right to vote and fully function as a legitimate member.

For the want of continued development in the sport of football, Minister Anthony disclosed that he had, earlier in the year, brought the two factions together but the parties left, giving him the impression that their differences would’ve been resolved for the good of the game, but it has only prolonged.
“Despite the national team (Golden Jaguars) doing well internationally, doing our country proud, the spat between the GFF and GFA has taken away from them, stealing their shine and day by day the situation is getting worse, so what I’ll be doing is writing FIFA, telling them that they need to intervene and do so now because in the end, it’s not these administrators who are affected, it’s the players,” said Dr Anthony.
Earlier in the week Presidential Adviser on youth empowerment, Odinga Lumumba, received a correspondence from FIFA, signed by their Deputy General Secretary Markus Kattner, after he (Lumumba) had written them to resolve the issue.
Kattner stated that in accordance with Article 10 of the FIFA Statutes, the GFF has been admitted by FIFA as the sole Association responsible for organising and supervising football in Guyana.
This principle is embodied in Arts 1 and 2 of the GFF Constitution; In accordance with Art. 13 of the FIFA Statutes, the GFF is bound to comply with the Statutes, regulations, directives and decisions of FIFA and must ensure that its own members comply with such Statutes, regulations, directives and decisions. This principle is embodied in Art. 12 of the GFF Constitution.
FIFA’s stand on any government interference is well known and countries have been banned before for such and their rules in that regard are well known by Minister Anthony, with him stating that, “it’s hard sometimes to digest the rules of some of these federations and associations, because they try to keep us (Government) as far as possible sometimes and would then turn around and ask us to play a part to aid in infrastructural development”.
“But this issue is going on for far too long and it’s time we intervene in a stronger way.  I think also that FIFA as the parent body for the sport should’ve put their feet down a long time ago on this issue because it’s now filtering its way into mainstream football, and even at the grassroots level and honestly, the leadership of the GFF needs to take most of the blame for the situation reaching like this,” said Minister Anthony.
Anthony went on to note that his doors are “always open to work with associations and federations to help enhance the game and solve issues amicably. I think the GFF and to an extent the GFA have allowed this standoff to go on longer than it should have; as a matter of fact, it should have never happened, but I am always here.