The re-establishment of the men’s national football team, the Golden Jaguars is on top of the Guyana Football Federation’s (GFF) agenda. This was disclosed by the federation’s President Wayne Forde; with two international matches lined up for the Jaguars against Trinidad and Tobago and Indonesia in November, Forde maintained that the GFF is looking to examine the national players ahead of next year’s Caribbean championships.
He pointed out that for the past two years the federation has been putting things in place for Guyana to have a solid youth foundation and he explained with that now in place, the focus will be on the senior teams.
“What the general public is witnessing, is the unfolding of a deliberate strategy; we spent the last two years putting the mechanics in place for the youth development programme,we have the ATCs (Association Training Centers), we have the intra association leagues, we have the coaching education programmes, all of that is being done at a very rapid pace. We think that we are at a point where the youth development program [which is the most important arm of any ambitious football nation], we think we have set those corner stones in place, we now getting to the point where we want to re-establish the national team brands, both female and male.”
He continued; “seeking out these interesting international engagements, whether it is out of the confederation or not; is one where we can first of all take a good look at the international players that will take us into our 2018 Caribbean Championship and the League of Nations which CONCACAF is working on. Apart from that, in our opinion it is going to help in the international brand appeal of the Golden Jaguars. We are hoping the result of that would be one where we can bring in more partners in terms of sponsors that can help because I’m sure everyone wants to be associated with a national team that is getting around the world, not only getting around but of course succeeding.”
Forde also revealed that the GFF is working on setting up another game against another Asian country. He stressed that the federation is aiming to go sub-100 in the FIFA International ranking within 12 months.
