Footballers given expired drugs at sub-standard camp By Steve Ninvalle
Stabroek News
July 10, 2002
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Have you ever heard the story about a fat cat? All it does is sit and sit and sit all day long. It just feeds. It never worries nor listens nor acts.

At times the Guyana Football Federation operates like that fat cat. It never heeds words of advice, it is always reluctant to act. It operates in its own world, at its own pace. In local phraseology, the GFF has `hard ears'.

Of course any of the above could be a recipe for disaster. So it comes as no surprise that preparations for our senior national camp has almost turned out to be just that - disastrous.

The squad of over 20 players which is preparing for the Gold Cup preliminaries is being accommodated at YWCA in Brickdam.

The location is so cramped it's more suited for well behaved prisoners than our senior national team. Mattresses are close to filthy and several players claim that some were borrowed from the Palms. "These things are sour," they claimed.

Dirty Linen! The national footballers were forced to hang their dirty or washed linen in public.

Stabroek Sport was invited to take a look at the facility and was appalled that our governing football body could be so uncaring as to dump the nation's best players in a place now being referred to as a "concentration camp."

The squad was in unison in stating that its members were "very" uncomfortable.

"We are not comfortable here. And it is affecting us. There is no place to hang our clothes, there is no place for us to eat as a team," declared one of the players, who requested anonymity for fear of being victimised.

Another player claimed that at one time they had to go on strike, to get the GFF to listen to some of their problems.

"These things must be known. These people think that we are lower than them. Here is like a concentration camp. Our food was terrible until last night when we saw some improvement. We eat in boxes, and have been served stale bread on a number of occasions," the senior member added.

One argued that the Under-17 squad, which has to play next month, are at a better location even though the seniors will be competing before them.

"This is the worst camp that I have been in," another stated. In the past there have always been cries about sub-standard camps but GFF seem incapable of learning.

"The excuse then was that money was not available. Well now its public knowledge that they can afford better which begs the question why not?" He asked.

Over and over national teams are treated like trash and somehow they are expected to go out and give 110 per cent.

When Stabroek Sport was invited to take a look yesterday it was shocking to find that only one table was in the dining room. It could accommodate only a maximum of five persons at one time.

The complaint was that it was important to eat as a team also. "You just have to grab the food and eat on the steps or in your room. I don't think that this is what I left my home for," a member added.

And to add insult to injury, expired drugs have been dispensed to the seniors but they bluntly refused to take them.

Stabroek Sport was shown the almost full bottle of Brewer's Yeast Natural Energy tablets which had the expired date of November 2001 on it.

So it was a horror to find out just how our national football team was being treated. Our overseas based players, recalled to do duties, must be wincing to know that they have to come back into this.

Should the GFF resort to its usual tactics then this new issue would be swept under the increasingly cramped carpet to greet many others. Our seniors, the would-be ambassadors of this Dear Land of Guyana, deserve much better.

Even a fat cat would.