The inaugural One Guyana President’s Cup football tournament is set to begin on Sunday, November 13, following discussions between President Dr. Irfaan Ali and several football stakeholders.
The tournament came to fruition due to President Ali hosting a contingent of football stakeholders, led by Guyana Football Federation (GFF) President Wayne Forde, to discuss the inauguration of an end-of-year nationwide football tournament.
President Ali, in a post on his official Facebook page, said the government will continue to invest in and promote sport which is key to bringing people together.
According to a release from the GFF, “the event will be an inter-ward competition, organised across all ten Administrative Regions of Guyana and will be conducted in two phases, with the first being an intra-regional straight knockout playoff, followed up by a national inter-regional round-robin championship.”
Ten regional teams, comprising 25 of each region’s best footballers, along with a five-member technical staff, will contest the inter-regional round-robin championship with the final slated for New Year’s Day.
Commenting on his Government’s involvement, President Ali stated: “My Government wants to see more young people participating in the sport along with leaders across every region working together, and I believe this competition provides a platform for this to take place.
“Football has the power to bring people together and this is the first in a series of initiatives in which Government plans to work with the GFF to support their ambition to make the game more accessible”.
The GFF contingent at the meeting included members of the GFF Council, Golden Jaguars head coach Jamaal Shabazz, along with several active national footballers.
Accompanying President Ali was the Senior Minister within the Office of the President, with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh; the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr; Director of Projects at the Office of the President, Marcia Nadir-Sharma; Chair of the National Sports Commission, Kashif Muhammad; and Chair of the Board of Directors at the Guyana Tourism Authority, Aubrey Major.
The GFF President stated, “the tournament will kick off in the various regions in one week and we really appreciate the efforts of the Government of Guyana and President Irfaan’s support in this initiative”. He added that the tournament also “provides our coaching staff with an additional opportunity to scout players to add to the National team pool”.
