GUYANA Football Federation (GFF) president, Wayne Forde, yesterday morning took some time from his busy schedule to pay a visit to the SVB Academy football team, who are being housed at the GFF’s National Training Centre (NTC) dorms, ahead of the KFC Goodwill International Tournament.

Forde and Petra co-Director Troy Mendonca, were well received by the Surinamese team who arrived in Guyana last Sunday.

“This is the first time that an international team is staying at the National Training Centre,” Forde revealed to the Surinamese team yesterday morning.

“Over the years, there’s been a really, really warm relationship between GFF and Suriname’s Association. We have a really good relationship, but we, however, suspend that relationship for 90 minutes,” Forde added, which was received with laughter from the SVB players.

In his bid to make the team feel welcome and to keep them in the loop about the path their presence in Guyana will pave for future tournaments going forward. the GFF president shared a bit of his vision for the format established by Petra Organisation.

“There’s a shared vision between GFF and Petra Organisation, that Troy represents, to be able to host a National School Championship in Guyana and we will be pursuing that aggressively in the next year or so. So, very likely the model will turn out to be one where once we have commitment from a few more countries, like Suriname, Trinidad, Jamaica, the hosting of this can move around.”

“It makes sense if we’re able to have the players experience the different environments,” the GFF Boss further stated.

As such, Forde articulated his expectation for the tournament, which is set to commence at the NTC, Providence today, December 15.

He explained, “We expect to see some good football, I will come out and try to enjoy a couple of games. Play hard, play well, take care of yourself and we hope that when you leave here, you don’t only leave with good experiences on the pitch, but you make some good friends.”