THE Guyana Football Federation (GFF), with the support of the Government of Guyana (GOG), has established an Academy Training Centre (ATC) in Region 7, the GFF’s 10th centre in its ground-breaking, national youth football development programme.

The ATC network, launched in 2017, seeks to provide boys and girls with age-specific, structured football training by certified coaches, employed by the GFF Technical Department.
The pioneering system has raised standards across the game nationwide and created a prolific, talent pathway for Guyana’s national youth and senior teams.

“The launch of the first Upper Mazaruni ATC is an important step in the ongoing implementation of GFF’s hinterland football development strategy,” said GFF president Wayne Forde. “Through the ATC programme, more indigenous coaches will be developed and many more young boys and girls will now benefit from well structured, age-specific coaching programmes.”
“This will have a huge impact on the quality of players that will emerge from these communities in the coming years,” Forde added. “In partnership with the Government of Guyana and other stakeholders, the GFF intends to roll out the ATC programme across the hinterland regions in the coming years.”

Acting GFF Technical Director, Bryan Joseph, said the new centre in Region 7 would play an instrumental role in the GFF’s aim to “ensure that no stone is left unturned when it comes to the identification and development of our nation’s footballers.”.

“The ATC will now serve as the hub for the identification and development of hinterland talent,”
Joseph said. “We look forward to graduating more players into our national teams. Our recent teams have had good representation of hinterland players, with as many as six players in a single team.”

The new academy will generally operate out of Kamarang and Waramadong villages because most of the school-age children in the area attend Desrey Fox Secondary School in Waramadong. The secondary component of the ATC will be mobile within the other Upper Mazaruni communities.

(GFF release)