Goodwill descends on football tournament
- All Stars given green light to play
By Steve Ninvalle
Stabroek News
December 25, 2003
In keeping with the season, the spirit of goodwill has come over the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation allowing them to come to a compromise, which allows for the participation of the Kashif and Shanghai All Stars team in this year's knockout competition.
Following an arm-bending and hotly-disputed meeting held at the GFF headquarters yesterday, the GFF and the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation buried their differences after the governing body gave the green light for the All Star Team continue participation.
GFF president Colin Klass and Kashif and Shanghai executive Kashif Muhammad both issued statements at the end of the meeting, but declined to answer questions from the media.
"We have agreed for the good of the game that the GFF will grant consent for the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation to continue to utilize an All Star Team because of the no show of a number of the overseas teams," Klass said in his statement.
"The Kashif and Shanghai Organisation is extremely happy that we did come to a solid decision for the good of the game.
The GFF has okayed that the All Star Team will continue to participate in the tournament. Throughout the years, we have had a beautiful relationship with the GFF and will continue to have a good relationship.
We are grateful that the impasse has been resolved," Muhammad said, taking his turn at the microphone.
"For the good of the game the GFF has acted in a very positive way," Muhammad added.
The now resolved issue, which had the potential to escalate into an avalanche of trouble for football, started over a week ago when Western Tigers was debarred from taking part in the invitational tournament.
The GFF had written to the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation claiming that the general council made a decision to bar Western Tigers.
However, Clement Henry, secretary of the Georgetown Football League responsible for administration of football in the Garden City, made it clear that Western Tigers had fulfilled the necessary administrative requirements set out by the GFL and was thus eligible to participate in tournaments.
Henry's statement left a question mark over how the general council of the GFF arrived at a decision to debar Western Tigers.
The Kashif and Shanghai Organisation then substituted Western Tigers with an All Star Team, made up mostly of players from the Western Tigers club to play in the competition.
But, on Sunday, just before All Stars was scheduled to open against Uitvlugt, a senior executive of the GFF telephoned a member of the Referee's Association instructing that no member of that association should officiate in the game.
That instruction was overruled by another senior executive who was at the ground. The GFF then called an emergency meeting which was followed by the meeting with Kashif and Shanghai.
Klass said yesterday that one of the conditions agreed upon is that the composition must reflect a true All Star team.
"The team will comprise the normal five guest players and there will be a restriction on the number of players [from one club] allowed on the field at one time," Klass added.
He explained that up to eight members of the Western Tigers club would be allowed to be on the field at any time.
"We have agreed for the good of the game. [This is] to ensure that our spectators and patrons benefit from football and not be confined to the many bureaucracies and difficulties being experienced by many of our affiliates," Klass said.
"We also want to make it categorically clear that we respect the decision taken by the general council with regard to Western Tigers.
This compromise is primarily for the good of the game. It has nothing to do with the abuse, misuse of authority or power.
"We want to apologies to the sponsors for any inconvenience or any bad press that may have been received as a result of any misinformation," Klass added.
The compromise paves the way for the All Star team to play in today's quarter final game against BV/Triumph at the Blairmont ground.
National Under-23 captain Sean `Bubbly' Beveney, striker Devon Millington, Ryan Thomas, Devon Edinboro will form the core of the All Star team which defeated Uitvlugt All Star 4-2 on Sunday.
In the feature match of this afternoon's double-header card Camptown, a favourite to take this year's title meet Net Rockers for a place in the semi final.
National captain Charles `Lily' Pollard has returned home from Trinidad and Tobago and will marshal the Net Rockers' defence.
Younger brother Matthew `Assassin' Pollard, Adrian Reid and Steve Lancaster are included in the line up.
Camptown, one of two teams from Georgetown still in the tournament, will be led by national mid-fielder Troy Prescod. Goal-hungry guest player Gregory `Jackie Chan' Richardson, Elton Browne, Nigel Codrington, Jonathan Peters, Leslie Holligan and Marlon Hendricks will form the core of Camptown's starting XI.
The competition continues tomorrow at the MSC ground in Linden. Milerock, who defeated Victoria Kings 1-0 in the opening game, will come up against four-time champions Bakewell Topp XX in the feature game.
Randolph `Black Head' Jerome, the leading goal scorer in the Trinidad and Tobago professional league has returned to strengthen Milerock.
Topp XX scraped pass Santos in their first match. Their chances of making it to the semi-final have improved with the return of three players from professional contract in Trinidad and Tobago.
Mid-fielders Abassy McPherson and Kayode McKinnon and Striker Cary Harris returned to Guyana on Monday. In addition, Topp XX has included Neil Hernandez and Anthony `Awo' Abrams in its side.
The supporting game tomorrow will see Silver Shattas of Linden taking on Kanuku Invaders of the Rupununi. That match begins at 6 pm.