(Letter to the Sports Editor)

FOOTBALL is considered the most exciting sport in the world with viewership of football matches unmatchable. At venues where seating is in excess of 60 000 and more, most times all tickets are sold out. When there is the World Cup millions of people watch TV and the list goes on.

This phenomenal viewership comes with good marketing strategies, comprehensive advertisements, committed personnel and knowledgeable and competent strategists.
Mr President, this was lacking with your organisation’s feeble attempt to run off a year-end tournament. The business of the GFF is to promote and organise football. To do this, Sir, you must have a strong team of competent and efficient persons to conduct such activity. The many deficiencies that marred the tournament were an embarrassment to the present GFF.

It was brought to my attention that the Competition Director thinks that he is God’s gift to football. He is arrogant, intrusive, self-opinionated and abrasive and not too people-friendly. He listens to few and takes advice from little. He is not good for future football development. Take note Mr President, this guy will cause you and your executive further and continued embarrassment. You just got to get amongst the Association’s executives, club officials, players and spectators and hear the negative comments that are meted out towards him and the GFF.

Sir, can you imagine playing a game at the Buxton Community Centre ground at night when the few lights that were available were so dim that it made a mess of a tournament of this magnitude! I was told that the place was so dark that even the players could not recognise their teammate whilst on the field if he was a distance away.
The crowd attendance was deplorable and atrocious and that comes with poor strategy and improper match up against teams. This was the worst attended year-end tournament since it commenced approximately more than two decades ago.

A previous administration of the GFF unilaterally killed the most anticipated period of the football calendar and since then the year-end football is like a whimper.
I can recall during the K&S football tournament the excitement, hype and enthusiasm that is associated when the tournament is scheduled.

The banners around the country, the TV, radio and newspaper ads, the radio and TV interviews, the newspapers articles, the many sponsors trying to get on board, players wanting to be a part of the tournament, overseas guests coming to Guyana for Xmas and the tournament, people using the opportunity to visit Guyana during the period just because they have an activity to keep them well occupied.

I can recall the MSC ground being filled to capacity and overflowing with a cage being built around the playing area to keep people off the pitch.
The hotels, boutiques, hairdressers, barbers, vendors, supermarkets, bars and every conceivable business relishing the K&S tournament because they made tons and tons of dollars. Sadly, the finals outgrew the community and it was moved to the National Stadium.

That was such a feat, the Stadium sold out, the crowd was massive and the first time the stadium was filled to capacity and overflowing was that January 1 experience.
Mr President, I think that your executive should bite the bullet, mend the fences, forget politics and think football and its development and invite the Kashif & Shanghai Organisation back into the football arena.

They did a lot for football and contributed to the development of many players and helped put Guyana on the football map. We need such boost to ignite excitement back into local football.

The attendance at the last year-end tournament and Elite League is evident that something is lacking. Remember football is a spectator sport and spectators only attend when they have something proper to attend.

Shemroy Alexander
Football Enthusiast