GFF president plays down talks of firing Golden Jaguars head coach

FOLLOWING Guyana’s dismal performance in the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar Qualifiers where they were booted out of the first round, there has been mounting calls for the country’s National football team’s head coach, Marcio Maximo, to step down. However, it doesn’t look like the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) will be giving-in to the pressure of firing the Brazilian. Wayne Forde, president of the GFF, at a press conference yesterday, said their plan is to allow Maximo to focus on seeing Guyana qualify for the Round-of-16 at the CONCACAF Gold Cup next month. “What I would like to say to the general public and to those who may have expressed their views about the head coach’s future with Guyana football is that we have to bring much more to bear in out deliberation and consideration before we make those very significant decisions,” Forde said responding to a question asked by Chronicle Sport about coach Maximo’s future with the programme. According to Forde, “The fans and the public, as one would expect, they’re expectation is consistent high performance and we were unable to do that this time around. But that does not mean that we would be making hasty decisions before we would’ve considered all the factors.”
He lamented that “the leadership of the GFF will continue to examine the entire programme and the decisions, that are necessary to give us the results that not only we (the GFF) expect but the nation expects, will be made as the situation demands.”

DISMAL PERFORMANCE
The Golden Jaguars were placed alongside Trinidad and Tobago, eventual group-winners St Kitts and Nevis, Puerto Rico and The Bahamas. It was Maximo’s first taste of World Cup qualifying football for Guyana. Guyana’s only victory came against The Bahamas (4-0), as Maximo went on to be defeated by Soca Warriors (0-3), St Kitts and Nevis (0-3) and Puerto Rico (0-2). Forde, told the Media at the GFF’s National Training Centre at Providence yesterday, that the Golden Jaguars’ 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign did not go as GFF had planned or expected, stating that they are all very disappointed. “While there are positives to take away from each game, not least the promising performances of our young talent, it was heart-breaking to see the team consistently conceding soft goals in the early stages of the three games that we lost,” the GFF boss noted.
Forde said following on from the Golden Jaguars’ historic qualification and appearance at the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup, which was further cemented by the team’s solid performances in each game, “we can surely understand the high expectations of the fans and other stakeholders, and we share in their disappointment”.
GFF has consistently stated that its strategic focus is to qualify for the expanded FIFA 2026 World Cup, as Forde mentioned “while four years may seem to be a long time ahead, it is our intention to start the integration of new talent into the national team programme now by building a squad that will reach its peak in time for that qualification process.”

LOOKING AHEAD
GFF, Forde noted, “also understands the importance of maintaining public confidence as we pursue this ambitious goal. As a stepping stone towards this ultimate goal, it was one of the senior men’s national team’s targets this year to reach the second phase of qualifying for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. We would, therefore, have to accept that, while the successful integration of some potential stars of the future can be considered an encouraging step forward, the recent performance of the team fell short of creating the momentum we had hoped for.”
While it is critical that we begin the grooming process of the generation of players that will be tasked with achieving the goal of 2026 qualification, Forde assured that it was never GFF’s intention to do this at the expense of the nation’s flagship football brand, and no-one within the national team programme should be saying otherwise.
Head coach Marcio Maximo and his technical staff must now shift their focus to preparing the team for their opening game against Guatemala on July 3 in Miami, Forde mentioned, adding “we are planning to travel to Miami early, with the hope of playing two friendly games as part of our preparation for this important encounter. These friendly games are crucial in assessing the players’ level of match-fitness and other performance benchmarks.” After the Gold Cup, the GFF president mentioned that the team will not be in competitive action until next year and that they “will use this time to further strengthen the development of our home-based national team players together with a consistent level of local and international games.”