THE Normalisation Committee (NC) of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) has announced its plans for the recently leased plot of land, set to host the Providence High Performance Centre (HPC). Updating the media, Chairman Clinton Urling said that the body is looking to transform the venue into the home for football in Guyana. “We’ve contracted the services of architects here in Guyana to design the plan for that facility. I know at the basic level, it will include a new artificial synthetic turf, seating stands, dressing rooms to accommodate what we want, to accommodate games at the facility. We will also have a beach soccer pitch installed at the facility. That’s at the basic level. Some other additions will come along as we get the plan.”
Meanwhile, the NC head disclosed that the federation is wasting little time in getting that facility up and running as quickly as possible.
“Currently, we have engineers doing topography of the area. The first step would be to raise the ground level of it to ensure that we have adequate drainage systems so that the facility wouldn’t flood easily. Once we have the holistic vision of what we want for the facility, FIFA’s Development Division is going to start to allocate funds under the various programmes available. We’re eligible for what you call Challenger Projects. Guyanese know it by the ‘Special Projects’. The artificial turf will come under that. Guyana is eligible for two of those.”
When quizzed about the length of the lease and why not a longer lease period, the football boss said the deal was made based on the validity and solidity of the available land. “With Providence, we got 30 years and it’s renewable. That was a concrete offer coming from the NDC/the Eccles/Ramsburg NDC. That’s what they were willing to give initially. We had two options. Say yes, let’s sign the lease and go ahead and access the FIFA funds and start to build the facility or say no, we want 90 years or more and if we don’t get that then you can keep your facility. We chose the former which is to take the 30 and to sign the lease.”

LAND NEEDED!
Urling stressed too that the recently signed facility is not the only one that the federation seeks to have in its development arsenal as they are looking at more engagements to have various other venues set up.
“The Providence ground and the Providence facility is not the only facility that we have pursued or that we are pursuing. We’re still pursuing grounds across the country.” “All those teams (clubs) or anybody interested, if you can get someone to donate land to the GFF or lease for at least 20-25 years minimum, we can start to talk about utilising some of the funds available from FIFA to develop those facilities around the country. For us, I know Linden is one of the strategic areas which we are targeting. We’re also looking at Berbice. It comes down to, in the end, which one of those grouping or geographic locations that persons can identify land for us and also help the federation to acquire lands.”
Urling said that they are now looking to hold discussions with the new administration through the Minister responsible for Sport Dr Rupert Roopnarine to secure lands as well as any other support that the government can provide.
He further called for widespread support for the development of the sport. “If the Support can come from anywhere, once it’s legal and it’s above board, the GFF will pursue every lead that we receive, once it meets those prerequisite requirements.”

By Stephan Sookram