Football in a ‘bubble’ impossible for Guyana, says GFF president

By Akeem Greene

The new norm of hosting sport events in a bio-secure environment, commonly called a ‘bubble’, is not applicable to Guyana given the lack of infrastructure, according to Guyana Football Federation (GFF) President Wayne Forde.

COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to climb in Guyana and there are differing views on the best way to resume on-field activity.

Though the ‘bubble’ has reaped success from a health standpoint where it has been implemented, Forde explained at this point in time Guyana cannot replicate such.

“It is impossible for us to have any serious discussion around football in a bubble; we do not have the infrastructure to create a bubble in Guyana, it is totally impossible but what we can have are conditions where we limit the risk as far as it is practicable,” he explained to News Room Sport in a recent interview.

CONCACAF Executive Howard McIntosh had stated that it is not financially possible to hold competitions in a bio-secure environment in the region.

According to Forde, the more practical option would be to try and limit the amount of contact their players are exposed to by putting financially viable systems in place.

“If I am to use the national team as an example, and that is our priority to get those youngsters back on the training pitch, we may be able to transport them from central points to the venue and back so we reduce the amount of time they spend in public transportation and the amount of persons they come into contact with.”

He added, “They also have family members traversing every day to and from a place of work, so we could have reduced their [players] contact time, but we don’t eliminate the possibility of them from coming in contact with someone entirely. The bubble cannot be replicated in Guyana as we have seen in other parts of the world.”

Now that sport events are allowed to resume under the new COVID-19 measures, pending the necessary approval, the GFF head said their objective will be to ensure players are back training and playing.

“This an unprecedented time we are in and we have to make decisions that are sensible. I understand that there is an insatiable appetite among the fans to get into a football venue and feel that experience.”

“We have to be very smart in what our core objectives are and our core objective at this moment is don’t allow those players to fall too far behind in their development trajectory; they have to be back training and playing football.”

The decision the GFF takes with regards to restarting on-field activities will be one based on the requirements they would have to fulfill through the Ministry of Health.