GFL/GFF to meet today
By Steve Ninvalle
Stabroek News
September 17, 2002
The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) will meet with members of the Millennium Executive of the Georgetown Football League this afternoon at the GFF headquarters.
The meeting is scheduled for 5pm and will address the situation relating to returning normalcy to football in the Georgetown Sub Association.
However, up to press time yesterday it seemed that only a handful of the executives were aware of the meeting.
A source close to the GFF revealed that the governing body had written to GFL general secretary Raol Johnson over 10 days ago requesting the meeting.
When contacted GFL third vice president Tommy Orderson said he was unaware of the scheduled engagement but promised to make every effort to attend. “I would have to go due to my respect for the GFF... There is a lot the GFF needs to know about how the GFL operated,” Orderson declared.
Stabroek Sport understands that treasurer Daune Campbell and assistant secretary treasurer Marlon Cole were also not informed of the event.
Second Vice president Frank `English’ Parris said that he was informed yesterday morning after Johnson contacted him. Efforts to contact Johnson and president Christopher Matthias proved futile.
“Since the GFF met with the GFL general council over two weeks ago there has been no movement. It is now critical that the two sides meet in order to get things going,” the source said.
“It is critical for the GFF to meet with them to get back football up and running in Georgetown,” the source added.
The GFF delegation to this afternoon’s meeting will be led by president Colin Klass and will include General Secretary George Rutherford, the source stated.
On August 28 the GFF deemed unconstitutional the Interim Management Committee elected by the general council to run the affairs of the league after Matthias and company were booted on August 14 via a vote of no confidence.
The GFF then mandated that the ousted executive be reinstated. The GFL was thrown into troubled waters after it was alleged that approximately $500,000 was missing from its coffers. The treasurer Campbell has denied that she knows anything of the alleged missing funds and returned from Barbados in an effort to clear her name.
The matter was reported to the police and an official from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Eve Leary said yesterday that investigations into the matter are still in progress.