TWO years after it was announced that Guyana would benefit from funding by FIFA’s Goal programme for a much-needed football facility, the project is yet to materialise.

But Saturday, in Bamako, the capital of Mali, FIFA president Joseph S. Blatter officially opened the latest completed Goal project - that country’s national association’s headquarters, which was built, for the most part, with funds made available from the Goal Programme.

By mid-year, some 35 Goal projects should be reaching completion and by year-end, 60 projects will be completed and a total of over 100 approved.

Yet in Guyana, many people are still not clear what the Goal project is all about, more than two years after FIFA vice-president Austin ‘Jack’ Warner announced on September 19, 1999, that this country will get a stadium built as a pilot project in the Goal programme.

The Goal project was initiated by the FIFA president and related to his candidacy to the presidency. It was ratified at the FIFA Extraordinary Congress in Los Angeles on July 9, 1999.

Goal offers tailor-made programmes to suit the individual country’s needs. Recipients are selected by the Goal Bureau, composed of six members of FIFA’s Technical Committee representing the confederations.

This programme funds projects for financially disadvantaged associations, allowing them to build association headquarters, lay grass or artificial turf pitches, establish technical training centres, or provide other such basic amenities.

A budget of 100 million Swiss Francs was approved for Goal by the Extraordinary FIFA Congress on July 9, 1999, to cover 80 to 120 Goal projects, establishing Development Office and ongoing administration costs until 2002.

Depending on a country’s priorities, Goal will offer help in the following areas:

Infrastructure - Construction and renovation of football pitches, training and tuition centres, office premises, etc.

Administration - Set-up structure of national and regional associations, staff, etc.

Education - Administration, coaching, sports medicine, refereeing, etc.

Youth football - Training of youth coaches, talent promotion, football schools, etc.

Other areas based on the needs of the national association.

To help implement the programme, Development Offices, managed by highly qualified FIFA experts called Development Officers were set up all around the world to strengthen cooperation with the associations.

Each Development Office is tasked to develop 15 to 20 national associations. These offices are situated in localities so that the needs of the associations could be analysed better and for easier supervision and monitoring of the projects.

Eleven pilot projects were conducted to help design a clear, transparent and structured Goal process for all benefiting national associations. The process derived is identical for all national associations and follows strict timing.

Application for Goal funds has four phases, ending with the Approval Session (meeting of the Goal Bureau). During the four phases the primary needs of the national associations are identified and project proposals are developed so that after four months, a decision can be taken on the project(s), the costs and the implementation time-plan.

Each application is processed in four months, thus the calendar year comprises three application cycles ending with the Approval Session that takes place in February, June and October. All selected national associations are scheduled for one of the cycles.

Goal injected US$500 000 into pilot projects and $400 000 into others. Should the project budget exceed the amount from Goal, federations could use money from their $1 million of FIFA Financial Assistance Programme (FAP), which is dispersed in batches of $250 000 each year from 1999 to 2002.

The first Goal Project was completed in Liberia - refurbishing the national stadium and laying a new artificial turf pitch. On November 23, 2000, the FIFA president officially opened the refurbished Antoinette-Tubman-Stadium and its new artificial turf pitch in Monrovia, the Liberian capital.

In South America, Venezuela’s project was a pilot one. A High Performance Centre is being built on Margarita Island, consisting of a five-storey level building, dining room, four dressing rooms plus one for coaches, offices, muscle-building room, props, accommodation for 72 persons, four class-rooms, kitchen and play-room.

In the second stage, the accommodation quarters will be increased to 16 double rooms, an auditorium for 144 people, another dressing room, three football pitches, one roofed FUTSAL pitch, one sand pitch and a parking lot.

The project costs US$2 014 008, with US$500 000 coming from Goal. The Venezuela federation’s contribution is US$1 514 OO8, using the US$750 000 of financial support given national federations by FIFA from 1999 to 2001.

Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru were later selected for Goal projects, each receiving US$400 000. They will stand the remaining costs, using part of FIFA financial support to them. The Bolivia federation even bought the land for their project.

To date, 23 Goal projects have either been completed or are nearing completion, according to FIFA.

In Buenos Aires on July 4, 2001, the Goal Bureau approved a further 21 projects, and an additional 50 projects are currently in the development phase. By the end of 2002, 100 associations will have benefited from the Goal programme.