Shambolic prize-giving ceremony leaves football officials deflated

Embarrassed by what passed last Saturday night for a prize-giving and presentation ceremony of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation (SVGFF), there are promises that it would not occur in future.

Accepting blame for the poor and disorganised event, second vice-president of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation {{more}}Elroy Boucher declared that his tournament’s committee will be responsible from here on.

“I am disappointed… It leaves much to be desired …The tournament’s committee will take on the responsibility of all prize-giving ceremonies,” Boucher, who heads the tournaments committee of the SVGFF, assured SEARCHLIGHT.

Boucher confirmed that it was the secretariat which was charged with executing last Saturday’s ceremony, staged at the former Calabash bar and restaurant, located on Bentinck Square.

But, general secretary of the SVGFF Trevor Huggins, who heads operations at the secretariat, revealed to SEARCHLIGHT that he had advised President Venold Coombs to defer the hosting of the activity.

“I told the president to postpone the prize-giving because we were not ready… I was busy all week up to Thursday, working with the auditors, trying to sort out the accounts,” Huggins said forcefully.

Last Saturday’s event sought to award teams and individuals for their efforts in the 2013/2014 National Club Championships and the 2014 Inter-community League competition.

Also, the occasion was used to distribute football gear to leagues and clubs affiliated to the SVGFF.

However, the event, which in previous stagings, was generally garnished with some pomp, was far from auspicious.

Accounting for the poor standard of the ceremony, there was an absence of many of the awardees; almost total disregard for formality in attire and deportment by those in attendance (including top football officials); no attempt to enhance the décor of the venue as well as the absence of the much-anticipated prize monies.

For this, first vice- president of the SVGFF Kenton Olliverre chose to bite the bullet and accepted blame for the shambolic ceremony.

“I will definitely want to apologise on behalf of the body,” Olliverre told SEARCHLIGHT.

Ollivierre, however, confirmed that Huggins was working on the presentation ceremony “for quite a while,” and added “our able executive administrator – Mr Poyer (Devron), who usually plays a key role in events such as these, was out for a while on national duties with the Windward Islands Schools Games.”

Commenting on the non-appearance of many of the awardees, Ollivierre stated, “I know that the general secretary is a hard worker, so I want to believe that all correspondence was sent out to the necessary personnel to be here.”

Displeased with the lack of proper dress by most who attended the ceremony, Ollivierre proffered: “In the world of work where I am from, professionalism … I expect once there is a correspondence for a prize-giving ceremony, and a dress code should be in effect… It is not a football game, and I wouldn’t expect persons to turn up in shorts and slippers.”

Ollivierre noted that the non-presentation of prize monies was outside the control of the executive and secretariat of the SVGFF.

“In explaining the facts, Ollivierre said: “We had moved our accounts from the First Caribbean International Bank to the Bank of Nova Scotia, of which we are still awaiting our cheque books… We actually delayed the prize-giving ceremony from last week to this week, with the assurance from the bank that we would have received the cheque books in the past week.”

Last Saturday’s prize-giving and presentation ceremony was the third undertaken by the Venold Coombs executive since taking office in September, 2011.(RT)