PRESIDENT of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), Victor Montagliani says that although football in Guyana still has some way to go, the sport in the country is on the right path with its strategic planning and objectives.
As it pertains to where Guyana stands among the other 41 CONCACAF member states, Montagliani is impressed with how Guyana is going about rectifying the years of destruction, and impediments that the sport has faced over the years. He’s particularly glad about how things are coming on the youth development front.
“From what I’ve seen (Guyana) is ahead in terms of the vision. Guyana has a very clear vision on what they need to do and I think they’re focusing on the right areas. It’s the planning and vision that’s quite important and on that end, Guyana is far ahead of where it has been, and in terms of where we are in CONCACAF.” Montagliani told Chronicle Sport yesterday.
It’s a matter of putting action to theory to see Guyana football take off to where it needs to be; now all that’s needed is time.
“Obviously the implementation and execution is going to take some time, but definitely in terms of the vision, I would say (Guyana) is in the top echelons in terms of what needs to get done. Now you have to do it, and you’re starting to do it, as we’ve seen.”
Montagliani recognises that on the whole, member states and CONCACAF at large have a lot of rebuilding that needs to be done, and the work has only just begun for everyone.
“We need to be much further ahead. We’ve had 50 years of politics rather than 50 years of football, we’re behind other confederations in the rest of the world, and because CONCACAF is behind other confederations vicariously, our member associations are behind others, and it’s all relative. Even our big federations are probably not where they should be,” he pointed out.
Montagliani says it’s only through working together can all the Federations get where they need to be, and he is strongly advocating the need to work as one. He pointed to other confederations such as the Union of European Football Associations and Confederation of African Football where, he says, such models have worked.
“The days of what CONCACAF can do for you are gone, now it’s what we can do together. We’ve established a mandate of one CONCACAF. Only together we can get there. Football is a very simple game, it’s not brain surgery, and when you do come together, you can have results. Unfortunately we haven’t lived that in CONCACAF until the last nine months,” he said.
Montagliani took over as CONCACAF president last year May, taking over a position that was tainted after the two preceding presidents, Jeffrey Webb and Jack Warner, were both embroiled in corruption scandals.
Montagliani has since taken on the uphill task of rebuilding the body’s image. Guyana Football Federation (GFF) has also seen its share of controversy, and has also been working on rebuilding its image since it came under the new management of president Wayne Forde, just over a year ago.
Arriving in Guyana last Monday, Montagliani came here to hold discussions with the GFF, as well as government officials. Yesterday he paid courtesy calls on the Director of Sport Christopher Jones, National Sports Commission (NSC) Chairman Ivan Persaud and Minister of State Joseph Harmon. Montagliani was scheduled to leave Guyana early this morning.
Montagliani acknowledged that his visit was not necessarily to give directions of mandates to the Guyana side, but to simply survey and pay attention.
“It wasn’t anything specific,” he said of the visit.
“It was more coming here to listen, it’s important that as leaders we listen more than we talk. Through listening there are questions you ask. There are questions on marketing, questions on administration, and obviously there were football questions as well. I think listening has led to some excellent positive dialogue.”