Georgetown Football Club celebrates centenary
Stabroek News
August 18, 2002
The Georgetown Football Club (GFC) which plays host to a variety of sporting and cultural events is celebrating a hundred years of service to the citizens and among activities planned is a four team invitational knockout competition.
And a press release from the club yesterday traced the origins of the club up to the present.
According to the release, "the birth of the GFC, co-incided with the beginning of the 20th century when in 1902, a Scotsman by the name of Alexander Russell, gathered together a group of football entusiasts some of whom played football in England before being posted to the former British Colony to form the Georgetown Football Club."
While its neighbour the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) which was to play hosts to Test and other international cricket matches had already been established several years earlier,"the formation of the GFC signalled the first attempt at organised football in the colony," the release stated.
The founder of GFC, Russell, was also the main driving force behind the formation of the Guyana Football Association which Russell started in 1902.
Russell is considered the father of football in Guyana and for many years, first division teams competed for the Russell Memorial Trophy in his honour.
But it was not until 1904 that the club took occupancy of its present premises and it took a further two decades for the pavilion to be built.
Four years later in 1928, a swimming pool was added and GFC became the main venue for acquatic sports.
Besides football, the club then competed in water polo, hockey, lawn tennis, rugby and even held a successful cricket team. But it was football that proved to be the club's biggest success and from its inception through to the 1940's the `Bourda Blues' was the premier football team in Guyana, said the release.
However, difficulties lay ahead for the club and subsequently a steady migration of club members which began in the 1950's and continued through to the 1980's had a devastating effect on disciplines such as hockey and football which were robbed of their best players, the release stated.
However, the 1990's found the club once again competing in the first division and after organising its first camp for young footballers from eight -16 years of age, in 1998 the club's nursery programme was complete, the release said.
"The club's focus on youth has paid great dividends and at the turn of the century, GFC dominated all competitions at the youth levels," the release stated.
It added: "This success resulted in unprecedented representation on the national youth teams. Five of our players representing Guyana at the under-15 level; four at under-17 and five each on the under-19 and under-21 national teams. Our first division team placed second in the 2001 GFL competition and with the average age of this team being 20 years, it augurs well for the future of club football. It is therefore fair to say that the GFC has once again claimed its rightful position as one of the leading clubs in Guyana's football arena, the release ended.
Meanwhile the club will engage Black Starliners, Charlestown Internationals and Conquerors Football Club in the 100th anniversary football tournament beginning tomorrow with GFC veterans opposing Black Starliners in the first game of a double header from 5pm at the club's ground.