By Ras Wadada

THE long overdue and much deserved home for the ‘Beautiful Game’ is on course to becoming a reality here in Guyana and that’s according to the president of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Wayne Forde.At a recent Press briefing with the media the president informed that the Executive Committee of the GFF took a decision to go ahead with the Goal Project, initiated by the Normalisation Committee (NC), after careful study and consultation.
“The facility was identified and the lease was organised through the NC who spearheaded many of the preliminary engineering and conceptual designing. They engaged FIFA, who had experts come down and did some testing at the facility. One of the key persons doing similar designs within the FIFA network reviewed the conceptual plans and made some adjustments.
“When we got into office the first task we undertook was to get the architectural engineering company that did the conceptual engineering design to come in and give us an update to this concept, on the work done so far, in terms of analysing the soil, and getting an understanding of the work required.
Subsequent to that, we had Mr Howard Mckintosh, FIFA Developmental Officer who came and visited and was very satisfied with the work and the investment that went into identifying the Providence facility as the suitable location for this attempt at the GOAL Project.
“We felt that the time was right, you know Guyana had several attempts at the GOAL Project, and I can assure you that we will construct this facility and this will be Guyana’s first GOAL Project,” said Forde
In his presentation after being introduced by the president, 2nd vice-president Rawlston Adams explained to the media where the project is at and how it will be completed: “The project at Providence is expected to be a 2-phase project. The first phase deals with the installation of the turf and lighting facilities and the 2nd phase deals with the ancillary of the complex,” Adams stated.
When completed the facility is expected to have 4 mini pitches, an international-size artificial pitch, Futsal and Beach arenas, as well as the Federation’s Office.
“Building the facility at Providence will encounter a few challenges and one of those will be the condition of the soil even though that is a challenge from an Engineer’s standpoint; it is a challenge that can be overcome and that is not the only consideration.
“With respect to the area, I think, based on the discussions we had, it gives us a lot of opportunities for revenue generation that will enable us to sustain the facility. The facility has to be able to maintain and sustain itself so the location of it gives us some very good advantages.
“It’s very close in proximity to the Stadium … and as we know the Stadium has extensive parking so it offers us the opportunity to collaborate and work with the Stadium so that we can share parking facilities once we would have developed that facility. We think that this facility offers us the best opportunity to develop football,” Adams declared.
“The president mentioned that the installation of the lights will take us five to six months, but there are other works that need to be done, like drainage. First we have to crop and install the base material which we expect to be white sand.
“We expect that to be quite a substantial amount of work. Once we do that, we install all the necessary drainage and the turf. The entire process should take us about a year then we will move to the other phases in terms of pavilion, stands, car-park, fencing, lighting and such. We expect the entire process to take about four years. In the vision and in the fullness of time every member association should have a GOAL Project,” Adams projected.
President Forde also informed that immediate application will be made to FIFA for a 2nd GOAL Project on the completion of this first GOAL Project which he anticipates will be before the end of his 4-year tenure at the helm.
From all indications, the Upper Demerara FA is expected to be the next beneficiary of the GOAL Project followed by the Rupununi and as the president stated these decisions are very justifiable. However, the football boss refused to give the cost of acquiring the plot of land, despite emphasising that his executive will be very transparent with all that they do on behalf of the Federation.
The close-to-nine acres of land, in close proximity to the Providence Stadium had been secured by the NC under a 30-year lease agreement with an option to buy at the end of the period.
Prior to that, previous Administrations had abused funds from FIFA in their failed attempts to provide Guyana with an exclusive home for football. Since the inception of the FIFA’s GOAL Project in 1998 Caribbean countries, with the exception of Guyana, have benefited from the acquisition of quality facilities.