 Welcome back to the Sports Mag Zone. We have been watching the president of the Guyana Football Federation Wayne Ford in a one-on-one interview with Donald Oliver. Now during the interview the president was asked about the sometimes caustic nature of the GFF's relationship with the national senior team, the Golden Jaguars and he had to react directly to criticisms from of his administration. Coaches, administration and medical, I think those four pillars of football are not as strong as it should be after all these years of being established as a Federation in Guyana. I think the players, they complain all the time, to be honest with you, they complain all the time and there's much much more to be done. I mean I'm in it like you like you rightfully said and I have been in it from a young boy, very young and I think there's still room for lots of improvement. Yes they're making strides or very small strides and some players, most of the players and most of the coaches are not satisfied with the kind of strides being made because they think that more could be done within this period of time. So to me, like I said before, it's still a work in progress. All along the work will take, all along progress takes, it's immeasurable. I cannot measure it. Your reaction to that comment in terms of how long the work will take and just for you to gauge the temperature that is out there where they are willing to give that chance to you being in the seat for two terms already, what's your reaction? I think I agree that's the first thing with the remarks of the coach. You know when you're building a machinery from almost nothing, the patience that you're asking people to have while that building is taking place is sometimes unreasonable for them because it's easy to see what the future looks like but the steps that one needs to take to carefully get to that and the time it may take is not always going to be appreciated. So I would say to you that I'm the most impatient person in football. I wish that we had five venues reflecting what we have at the National Training Center across the 83,000 square miles but it's not entirely up to my administration to make these things happen. But what I will say is that the evidence is clear. We are the oldest federation in Kunkakath. I don't know if you're aware of that and we're only now building the first home of football in Guyana and these were all promises that were made by several, several administrations before I got here. So we are delivering on that. Do we want to do more? Do we want to do more at a faster rate? Obviously. But it's not, the membership don't necessarily have a feel for the diligence that must go in before we can have any project approved first and foremost by the FIFA Developmental Committee and then once that approval is achieved then the implementation phases. But I'm happy that the members are attentive and then they have the prerogative to really share their views and their expectations because we listen and we are always keen to make sure that we take decisions that are in line with the expectations of the members. It is a monumental task. I must agree because even when you compare with other Caribbean countries and I'm sure that you've looked at models in Trinidad and Tobago as well as Jamaica in terms of what's in play for the youth in terms of coaches being certified. I'm sure that you'd have probably made a couple calls in the past as to what you can do to implement in such a unique situation in Guyana. How have you gone about that process in terms of the youth and getting coaches certified? The interesting thing is that when my administration were elected in 2015 we discovered that there were only three licensed coaches in all of Guyana. At the moment we may have almost 60 and only back in November we certified the largest amount of female coaches. I believe we had about 18 females that achieved a choir, their Konkukav Sea license. That's historic. But acquiring one's license is only one step in being able to ultimately do what you should be able to do with those credentials, which is to deliver proper coaching sessions. So while a lot of these people are putting in the work and their dedication to obtain their license, they now need to go into the fields and gain that critical and essential experience. They now need the guidance of those coaches that would have been there. So that too is a working progress but we have a greater number of qualified coaches now within our football ecosystem than we had in the past. And we are continuing that investment in coaching education. What I believe is not happening at a rate that meets my satisfaction is how fast they are getting that practical experience. And that depends on both groups, the coaches and the Federation. Many coaches are proud to put their certificates in a frame and proudly parade it before their families and friends, rather than finding a club and grabbing a couple of 13 years old and work with them for a couple of months and then see how much they're able to impact their quality, not just to play but to understand the concept and philosophy of football. That is a working progress. But I think what may have set us apart from other countries within the region is our emphasis on a new generation of coaches. Now that has gone across not well because you know the guys that have been there for all the years they somehow would interpret that as if they're being sidelined. But we've had to confront two set of thinking. Many of the older coaches that have been wrong for many years don't necessarily readily avail themselves for the classroom, the discipline and the work ethics that must complement acquiring a license. It's been a challenge to get them to do it. And one must always look ahead and think about succession planning. I mean we're all going to get old and we're all going to be somewhere else one of these days. So most of the coaches that we've been investing in are between 20 to 35 and some even younger. And I believe that given the way that football is changing, the new thinking, the way that you speak to a player, the way that you make sure that the coaching curriculum is best suited age appropriately, these are all concepts that did not exist 10, 15 years ago. And trying to retrain all coaches if you're starting off with them not being overly disposed to this is quite a challenge and we've had that challenge. So the chart of this story is that we are making progress and we are investing significant resources in coaching education. Leadership comes with so many dilemmas right? One dilemmas that you have of course you have to look ahead to the future. You have to be thinking about what's going to take place 20, 25, 30 years into the future right? But at the same time in order to put your mark on the now, you're looking at what's happening with the national women's team and what they've done in terms of the goal cup. You're looking at what the rankings are as far as the men are concerned and where you want them to go under coach Shabazz. And then there is that dynamic with the senior players and what they demand because they are the face of football right now. How do you balance that especially relationships because that's so important? Yeah well I think the good news from a performance standpoint is that both of the teams are performing well. Our girls were able to make it all the way to the preliminary. They went down 1-0 against the DR as you know hard breaking. I was out there to console them. I can see the emotions pouring out because that would have been such a massive platform. I mean we had no unreasonable expectations as to what the outcome would have been against the likes of Brazil and the US. But it still would have been a massive stage for our girls to perform at and maybe catch their eyes and attention of a few leagues at the level most suitable for them. You may also know that the Golden Jaguars recently qualified for Konkukaf Ligue. So we're going to be punching with the big boys at the Next Nations League which kicks off in September. So the teams have been performing well and a lot of this in particular for the men is credited. Now they have their own home. They're training consistently. Most of the training was being conducted during the day. Now they can train day and night. We have invested tremendously in technology and expertise. We have sports science on staff. We have all the bells and whistles, GPS. We have everything. We've really invested and that investment the local players are benefiting from it the most because they're here and coach Abbas is a resident coach. So he's working with them as much as possible. I think for anyone that manages players and I have managed players from club to national team players are are unique. I love them and I know what it takes for them to get good. I know sometimes they may not necessarily like any young person because they bring a particular special gift and talent and passion for football but you don't want them to concern themselves too much with the challenges that the leadership has to overcome to deliver what their expectations may be. So I am not taken back when I when I talk to them and I speak to them directly at times and I can hear sometimes very overly or sometimes quietly within the the words that they're saying to me that they would like more and sometimes not so quietly. Some not so quietly but we've been able to to to do that in many ways. We've increased the national teams type in by almost 400 percent. After most campaigns the average player on our national team is probably earning about over 500,000 Ghana dollars is something that oftentimes they don't say but given what they're earning per game their bonuses and all that it adds up significantly. I see many of my players now driving cars. They couldn't have done that before. The way we take care of them when they're training and in camp the level of hotels that they're going at. The fact that we have a residence coach working with them refining them and out of technical style. So they may not have an appreciation for all that back end stuff and they may look at it now because for many of them it's bread and butter. You know the unfortunate reality of this part of the world is that we're still drawing a lot of our footballs from some of the most challenging social environment. Many of them may have a child or two already so they're trying to build a football career and then father in at the same time so it's very bread and butter. So while we are making all of these investment that helps them because if they're performing well on the international stage the diamond pennies that they might be quarreling for means nothing to them if they're able to secure something significant. But we haven't ignored that. What I want to see and my vision for Ghana football especially in the top 10 league and this is where we're working and building the partnerships and we're doing very well with that is an environment in which the clubs are able to play an important part in the management of players. Our goal is to have a professional league in Ghana but at the moment everyone is looking to the Federation to do that and we have to lead the process but it will never be sustainable if the Federation is providing all the funding as we are for the management of the league for the payment of the officials for the prizes and all that. And at the same time paying the players we provide every league club with what we call a participation grant and we don't give them any restriction on how they utilize that money. We keep an eye on it because we don't want to hear them doing foolishness with those funds but we believe that they should allocate some of those funds to a training stipend or something for the players. But the goal that we are setting ourselves in two years time is that players must be able to go and sign on a payroll sheet and pick up a salary every month for playing for their clubs. We will lead that process. We will try to invite the level of corporate partnerships that would allow us to do that but the clubs have a fundamental role to play because the National Federation really concerns itself with the national team. At the league level it's the club and the model exists in many parts of the Caribbean. The culture of Ghana is cricket and you probably would have seen that growing up right being a part of it seeing it all around you. So football had some way to go to break through that top soil and for it to be relevant in the society which means that you need help from government. How's that been going for you? Well I want to say that we know what football means to Caribbean people and whenever I explain this to anyone that is not familiar with the sporting dynamics between football and cricket it's enlightening and I just want to make sure that I do that. This is my perspective. I believe that football resides in the heart of all Caribbean. Cricket resides in the heart of all Caribbean people because it was really the first time that the descendants of slaves were on an even playing field with the former slave masters and then guess what we went for almost 18 years of kicking their butts. So the moment of pride I grew up as a youngster seeing 15 grown men leaning to a transistor radio and screaming because at the time we had no television and all that. It was a small radio as I was born in a remote area in Esiquivo called Bartica. It was a small radio a whole group of men and they're listening and after that game they're drinking they're having a good time. So the entire region was conditioned with that pride and that's what cricket is for us. But I will say and I would argue strongly that in Guyana football is the most popular sport. The only thing that out does football is T20 cricket. So football is the most popular sport in in in Guyana. We have the largest population. There's no sport that has a larger population in Guyana of players, officials than football. We play far more football tournaments than any other far more competition in any other discipline and we are far more frequent on the international stage representing the goal in our head than any other. As you know, Konka Kaaf has now launched flurry of tournaments. For a matter of fact in a few hours the under 20 boys are going to be going up against El Salvador. So we are on the international stage more often than any other sport. We're far more busy preparing national teams doing all that stuff. So there is no comparison. In Guyana football is the most popular sport. In regards to the support the government of Guyana has been very generous in its support for football. This has been led by our president Dr. Irfan Ali who has publicly declared on many occasions only recently his support for football his vision for football and his determination to give us the best possible chance or to provide us with the resources to give ourselves the best possible chance to break into the 2026 World Cup. Will that be a challenge? Of course it's a huge challenge but I believe that every step that we take in pursuing that goal as ambitious as it may be would be us building the infrastructure not physical but the entire infrastructure of improving our chances at every World Cup cycle. The land that we are building our Blue Water Stadium was given to us by the government of Guyana. We have a 50 years lease for that land. So these are all tangible evidence of how generous the government of Guyana has been to us. Like the players the GFF also has a particular inkling of wanting more you would imagine. So we would want more but I believe that in time we will see more resources being directed to key components of our football space and football activities. Yeah I think Lance that interview touched on so many different aspects of Guyana's football that I know the public they have a lot of questions about and I'm happy that Donald got the opportunity to spend some time and sit with the GFF boss. He touched on things like I love the part where they had the reaction. So the court spoke said what he believed and he spoke for the players as well and then of course the GFF boss had to react to it. So I think that was so important. I'm happy also that he agreed. He understands that people can get impatient when they're waiting to see progress and progress takes time. He spoke again on the importance of the infrastructure which we know in any sport you need proper infrastructure if you want to achieve really high levels of success. So that was one of the things that really really stood out for me. The salaries the fact that they're working on ensuring that one day the players can be on a payroll. I think that's so important in sport because it's really difficult to be trying to juggle a regular job like let's just say a nine to five. This is just an example and then pursue a sport professionally. So I think you know a lot of positive things coming out of the interview but again as journalists and watchdogs we have to ensure now that we take all those points and check it when the time comes. Yeah well to Winford's credit he did accept that as the coach had pressed that things have to improve but as president and as a proud governor of Guyana's football he didn't miss the opportunity of making it clear that things have improved but he accepts that you know they probably need to improve more or at a faster rate and he did as you referenced you know players salaries and so on that there's been an increase in the stipend that players get for representing the Golden Jaguars. So it's for me a fairly articulate presentation from Winford president of the GFF. I like his mannerism and I like his inclusiveness in how he speaks and I know that a lot of administrators now are moving towards term limits and so on. I just hope that the president who comes after Winford because this is his last term will be as articulate and measured in his thinking and accepting too that there needs to be improvement because there are some administrators who behave as if they've done a world of good and there's no room for improvement which there always is. He knows he has a lot of work to do. Guyana's current world ranking is 155th their highest world ranking I think is 86th back in 2010 so they are far off where they had been before. For the World Cup qualifiers coming up in June they have drawn group D with Panama, Nicaragua, Montserrat and Belize and that will be a tester for them and their coach Jamal Shabazz to make their mark in that group and of course when September comes they'll be playing League A Nations League Football a promotion from League B so overall I'm happy that Donna was able to speak to President Ford about Guyana's football and where it is heading because I think from a CFU perspective Guyana has been one of the success stories in the past two or three years and President Ford has to take some credit for that. Yeah well remember the tune in on Friday to watch Guyana's goal a mini documentary on the state of Guyana's football which was produced shot and edited by the award-winning team of Donald Oliver and Jason Sawyer's here's a preview. for Mary food is for feasting but money brings an end to our problems I want to be honest the more things change the more they remain the same what's your reaction I think I agree witness the journey in the hope of glory in this sports max special Guyana's goal Good Friday 5 p.m. 6 p.m. u.c.t. on sports medics