Rawle Toney reports
Selective affiliates of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) namely, Georgetown Football Association, East Bank Football Association, East Demerara Football Association, West Demerara Football Association, National Association of Women’s Football, Guyana Football Referees Council and Guyana Football Coaches Association, forming two-thirds (2/3) of the General Congress, on Saturday passed a “No Confidence” vote against GFF President Christopher Matthias.
The motion which was unanimously voted on by the Congress saw Matthias being given a ‘red card’ and in the interim Vice President Ivan Persaud is expected to act as President of the sport’s governing body in Guyana.
According to information shared at the post-congress Press Conference at the Water Chris Hotel in Georgetown, one member from each association will be placed to temporarily fill the vacated positions in the GFF since apart from Persaud, only the Women’s Football Association President Vanessa Dickerson are the existing executive members.
Other executives where either banned from the sport as in the story of Collie ‘Hitman’ Hercules, or have resigned from their post as the case of Rawlston Adams.
The representatives of Congress informed that within 60 days, they would hold elections where the affiliate clubs will vote-in the various needed executives of the GFF.
Asked when Matthias would be informed of such findings of the General Congress, Persaud who chaired the Press Conference said “we will write a letter to him and it will be hand delivered on Monday morning to Mr. Matthias. We would a response from him and then we’ll go ahead and institute or rule deriving from Congress”
General Secretary of the GFA described yesterday’s decision to rid Matthias of his Presidency as a historic day, not just for football, but for all of Guyana since it shows that dictatorship would not be accepted.
Odinga Lumumba said that though Matthias’s tenure as President of the GFF lasted for just over a year, his period at the helm was the worst in the sport in over the last 20 years.
The Alpha United club owner also pointed out the Matthias would have spent approximately $38M since taking office and has nothing to show for it while the sport has no stability in the country.
“Football has suffered for too long and we will not sit by and watch it die a natural death in this country” Lumumba stated.
Matthias was absent from the proceedings and his reasoning was that he was not informed though members of the Congress proved otherwise.
“We don’t expect him to just sit there, roll over and walk out of office; we expect him to pose a challenge and as such, we have informed FIFA and CONCACAF of today’s (yesterday) Congress and will also inform them of the outcome” Persaud said.
Matthias not aware
Meanwhile, when contacted, Matthias when told of the outcome of the Congress noted “I’m yet to be officially informed about such happenings presently and I will wait on an official release from FIFA and CONCACAF before I can speak about it. When FIFA and CONCACAF informs or contact me about anything then and only then I will make a comment but presently, I’m not aware officially about what happened today.”
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