NORMALISATION Committee Chairman Clinton says that the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) remains committed to the development of the sport in Linden. Urling’s statement comes after a visit to Linden with FIFA Development Officer, Howard McIntosh, and other officials of the GFF last Saturday, with the aim of meeting with the region’s policy-makers, including the Parliamentary representatives and the Regional Chairman Renis Morian to discuss the possibilities for football development in the region.
The upgrading of facilities, installation of artificial turf and the establishment of a football technical centre was supposed to be discussed by the FIFA official, the GFF and the RDC chairman, but Lindeners snubbed the meeting; failing to show up or making any contact to relay their unavailability.
The visiting team nonetheless scouted several locations in Linden to assess what the needs are and what could be developed. The sites included the Bayroc Community Centre, the Mackenzie Sports Club ground and the Christianburg Community Centre.
Urling was not discouraged that the meetings did not take place and commented that “it’s not debilitating or something that will deter us from fulfilling our mandate which says that we should invest in the communities outside of Georgetown and develop their football infrastructure”.
The GFF Normalisation Committee chairman added, “Linden is important to the GFF not just the administrative side of it, but also to expand on the infrastructure that exists presently. But we need to meet with stakeholders to ensure the GFF can have some agreement with them so that we can begin those infrastructural works. FIFA requires at minimum, either a user requirement for the properties or a lease for us to put down any significant investment.”
Urling also pointed out that tomorrow, one of FIFA’s technical inspectors would be in Guyana to primarily conduct work at the GFF’s Providence facility and “the GFF will bring him to Linden to test the soil samples and make recommendations on suitability to the GFF and FIFA as to which is the best area to invest.
“We will continue talks with Government to get a solution on how we can move forward.”