… Position ‘unfortunate’ and ‘disappointing’ – GFF president

GUYANA’S National football team, popularly known as the ‘Golden Jaguars’, refused to play their last friendly game in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Thursday, in protest over unpaid stipends, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) confirmed.

They are currently preparing for the CONCACAF Nation’s League qualifier and will play their first game at home at the National Track and Field Centre against Barbados on September 6.

The 23-man team departed Guyana on August 12 for Brazil and according to president of the GFF, Wayne Forde, the players were paid 50% of their stipend for the two-week encampment.

Forde explained that under his executive committee, the players saw an increase in their stipend, moving from approximately US$40 per day, to now US$50. This therefore means that the GFF would have paid each player US$350 prior to departure for Rio de Janeiro.

“The players received 50% of the stipend and the plan was to wire the balance but then we realised that was more easily said than done. The attempts to do it through Western Union also proved difficult because we could have sent only $3 000 at a time, so by the time the players became agitated over this, we realise the only option was to have their parents, wives and girlfriends collect their funds at the Federation,” Forde bluntly remarked upon being grilled by reporters yesterday.

Forde called the position taken by the players disappointing, adding that “it’s very unfortunate because this whole camp was our way, the executive committee’s (way), of giving the local players an opportunity for what has been a cry within the football fraternity for many years, that is, that we putting together a national team that doesn’t reflect the local talent that we have been developing.”

The GFF boss, while respecting the players’ right to protest, said that he was disenchanted that “the leadership on the ground was unable to communicate this really about you (the players), this is the federation investing a huge amount of resources to give you a chance to prove to the new coaching body that you have what it takes to vie for those positions to represent your country in four very important games.”

Forde opined that the protest action by the players does not, and should not reflect badly on the GFF, since, the players being in Brazil and the financing of the high-level expert technical staff, will tell a story of an executive committee that’s willing and prepared to make the necessary investment to bring success to the country’s flagship programme; the senior men’s national team.

However, the GFF president said that he awaits the report from an ordered full investigation into the protest action, since he believes that the GFF owes it to all stakeholders to give an account of the incident: what led to the unfolding and corrective measures that will be in place to stop a recurrence.