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THE date is Friday April 12, the venue is the Savannah Suite of the Guyana Pegasus and the grand occasion is the elections for key executive positions of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), including the prized and coveted presidential post. In the over 100-year history of the beautiful game played here in Guyana there has never been an elections build-up of this magnitude in public debate and candidacies like the present one.
The much-anticipated elections is making its third attempt in two years to provide the platform for deciding who will be charged with the leadership and direction of the sport which has been autocratically handled in the past by former boss Colin Klass.
The first attempt in 2011 was stopped by the Registrar of the Friendly Society Act, based on a letter sent by long-standing football Administrator Lester Sealey since the required 14 days notice for the meeting was not adhered to by the imperious rule of Klass.
On the second occasion, the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) filed an injunction to cause another halt at the Ocean View Hotel, but more importantly it made the way clear for the first time in over two decades for football to be under the guidance of a new boss.
The four challengers for the top position have all been busy with their respective campaigns and have all expressed confidence in securing the number one position in football in the country.
Open endorsements from businesses, past players and administrators have fuelled unending debates and in some cases ‘mud-slinging’ in the press. One can expect in this last week leading up to the polls lobbying will be intensified, with each candidate trying to woo the votes of the membership who are eligible to vote.
In 1993 Klass squeezed past the late Henry Greene by a solitary vote and six years later Joseph Harmon suffered the same fate. How close this one will be is anyone’s guess, but what is certain is that a new leader will emerge and hopefully with him an era of real football progress.
All four of the candidates have recognised, like the general football public, that the sport has been a victim of mal-administration and needs a new direction devoid of authoritarian rule.
Their plans for the future development appear to take a similar direction and surely have impacted on the minds of the football fraternity.
They all speak of constitution reform and term limits for serving the executive of the GFF as well as accountability and transparency in conducting the business of football in Guyana.
It is the general feeling that some level of democracy in the process of the elections has been achieved mainly because it is in the hands of an appointed Electoral Commission for the first time in the history of the sport in Guyana.
I beg to share a concern that boggles the minds of a number of dear lovers of the sport and that is the question of secret ballot voting – the fact that the constitution of the GFF has been thrown out of the window in arriving at who is eligible to vote.
It is as clear as daylight in the constitution that any member failing to provide audited financial statements of its association should be exempt from voting.
The question then is why is the Berbice Football Association (BFA) and the Guyana Women National Football Association (GWNFA) being pampered and given time to put their house in order despite being guilty of breaching the constitution. They both have been delinquents and should face the consequences as provided by the constitution.
On the field of play when you are red-carded that’s it, you are out of the game and you are also required to face a Disciplinary Committee.
These two member associations cannot account for the income and expenditure for several years and have been given a new lease to get their act together in order to have a say in who takes over the leadership of the sport.
Another Association who I strongly feel should have no say in the upcoming elections is the Bartica Football Association, the most inactive member for years now.
The task ahead for whoever takes over the reign of the sport is not going to be easy unless there is the concerted effort to use at all times as a guide the Constitution which of course must first be reformed.
The football pundits seem to think the race is too close to call a winner at this stage and for sure the playing field is not a level one.
The much-anticipated elections is making its third attempt in two years to provide the platform for deciding who will be charged with the leadership and direction of the sport which has been autocratically handled in the past by former boss Colin Klass.
The first attempt in 2011 was stopped by the Registrar of the Friendly Society Act, based on a letter sent by long-standing football Administrator Lester Sealey since the required 14 days notice for the meeting was not adhered to by the imperious rule of Klass.
On the second occasion, the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) filed an injunction to cause another halt at the Ocean View Hotel, but more importantly it made the way clear for the first time in over two decades for football to be under the guidance of a new boss.
The four challengers for the top position have all been busy with their respective campaigns and have all expressed confidence in securing the number one position in football in the country.
Open endorsements from businesses, past players and administrators have fuelled unending debates and in some cases ‘mud-slinging’ in the press. One can expect in this last week leading up to the polls lobbying will be intensified, with each candidate trying to woo the votes of the membership who are eligible to vote.
In 1993 Klass squeezed past the late Henry Greene by a solitary vote and six years later Joseph Harmon suffered the same fate. How close this one will be is anyone’s guess, but what is certain is that a new leader will emerge and hopefully with him an era of real football progress.
All four of the candidates have recognised, like the general football public, that the sport has been a victim of mal-administration and needs a new direction devoid of authoritarian rule.
Their plans for the future development appear to take a similar direction and surely have impacted on the minds of the football fraternity.
They all speak of constitution reform and term limits for serving the executive of the GFF as well as accountability and transparency in conducting the business of football in Guyana.
It is the general feeling that some level of democracy in the process of the elections has been achieved mainly because it is in the hands of an appointed Electoral Commission for the first time in the history of the sport in Guyana.
I beg to share a concern that boggles the minds of a number of dear lovers of the sport and that is the question of secret ballot voting – the fact that the constitution of the GFF has been thrown out of the window in arriving at who is eligible to vote.
It is as clear as daylight in the constitution that any member failing to provide audited financial statements of its association should be exempt from voting.
The question then is why is the Berbice Football Association (BFA) and the Guyana Women National Football Association (GWNFA) being pampered and given time to put their house in order despite being guilty of breaching the constitution. They both have been delinquents and should face the consequences as provided by the constitution.
On the field of play when you are red-carded that’s it, you are out of the game and you are also required to face a Disciplinary Committee.
These two member associations cannot account for the income and expenditure for several years and have been given a new lease to get their act together in order to have a say in who takes over the leadership of the sport.
Another Association who I strongly feel should have no say in the upcoming elections is the Bartica Football Association, the most inactive member for years now.
The task ahead for whoever takes over the reign of the sport is not going to be easy unless there is the concerted effort to use at all times as a guide the Constitution which of course must first be reformed.
The football pundits seem to think the race is too close to call a winner at this stage and for sure the playing field is not a level one.
