THE suspension of former Upper Demerara Football Association (UDFA) executives Sharma Solomon, Collie Hercules, Terrence Mitchell, Wayne Bethune, Rawle Johnson, Jefftey Trotman, Ansawatt Barrett, Patrick Day and Clive Brushe, was lifted at yesterday’s Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Extraordinary Congress. Solomon, who is also the Chairman of Region 10, was suspended for eight years while Hercules; an executive of the GFF as well at the time, was given a five-year ban from the game.

The other executives had similar sentences like Hercules.
Chairman of the GFF Normalisation Committee Clinton Urling, addressing the media after yesterday’s Congress at the Marriott Hotel, said, “We’ve lifted the sanctions that were imposed on the UDFA executives on January 17, 2014 and they will now be able to participate in football and football-related activities, (but) they wouldn’t resume their roles as the executives of the UDFA”
The aforementioned former officials were suspended by the Christopher Matthias-led GFF for playing the Final of their GT Beer year-end tournament on January 1, 2014 at the Mackenzie Sports Club (MSC) ground simultaneously with the Georgetown Football Association’s (GFA) Banks Beer Cup Final at the Guyana National Stadium.
Congress at the time believed that the two should not have been played on the same day but the UDFA explained that the final being played on New Year’s Day, 2014 meant a lot to the Linden community and as such went ahead with the hosting of their final.
It was also argued by Linden that a final in Linden would not be a hindrance to the final being played 65 miles away.
The suspended executives had full support from the clubs affiliated to the UDFA who until now, did not recognise the decision handed down by the-then GFF Congress.