THE Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) will kick off their Integrity Workshop – the first of its kind in Guyana, directed specifically at clubs in the upcoming Elite League and football administrators.CONCACACF Integrity Officers will be in Guyana to conduct the two-day workshop which starts today at the Carifesta Sports Complex from 10:00hrs and concludes on Saturday, June 13 at the National Racquet Centre.
On the opening day, CONCACAF officials will meet with the eight clubs participating in the GFF Elite League on an individual basis, and also with the Guyana Senior National men’s football team.
The referees and affiliates of the GFF will meet on the closing day of the workshop which will educate members of the football family about the facets of match-fixing with the objective of ultimately protecting the game’s participants from organised criminals who are determined to influence results.
In July 2014, CONCACAF’s 41 member associations (MAs) received information about the CONCACAF Integrity Officer Programme and were urged to request a workshop that would be conducted by a CONCACAF Integrity Officer.
With the GFF Elite League on the horizon, the CONCACAF Integrity workshop will place emphasis on multiple key topics related to match manipulation, including techniques used by match-fixers to contact players and referees, tactics to resist approaches and the CONCACAF Integrity Reporting Mechanism.
The workshop will provide two different channels for individuals to report match manipulation incidents in a confidential and anonymous manner.
Through this system, any individual within the CONCACAF region has the ability to file safely a confidential, anonymous report electronically or via a telephone hotline.
Additionally, the CONCACAF Code of Ethics will be thoroughly reviewed. The Code of Ethics prohibits behaviour that damages or could damage football’s integrity.
It precludes members of the football fraternity from betting on football matches (directly or indirectly), being involved with gambling companies and recommends not entering betting shops and also obligates the reporting of possible match-fixing incidents and cooperation in any CONCACAF investigation.