SVGFF Executive report card – one year after

Like every individual, organisation, company or corporation, there is always a time for a re-think, an evaluation, a summative test, an assessment or a time for stocktaking.

The same holds for the executive of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation, which on Monday, September 24, celebrated one year since being elected.{{more}}

In assessing the executive’s performance over the past 12 months, it is necessary to issue a report card for the period of stewardship.

The executive, true to form, held good to its promise to bring back football to the people, and this was achieved. The invitational inter community/league championships, which also saw a women’s division and an under-13 division, were novel to the football set-up here in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The competition in total was well received and the crowds did come out, likewise the attractive prize monies, which were promised, were indeed delivered.

Also on the plus side the presence of stretcher personnel and a physiotherapist at all senior division matches earn the executive of the SVGFF a high grade.

The training of a lump of new referees and the re- installation of a referees’ -coordinator get a big tick in the progress report of the executive.

Likewise, the executive hosted Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados in five friendly internationals, which is another plus in keeping the national senior team active, albeit outside the World Cup campaign.

But its stance to have more football has led to a total breakdown in the process, as we have gone back to square one, where players have gone on parade, appearing in every nook and cranny, representing any team they desire.

In other areas of adjudication, things are not so rosy.

The executive of the SVGFF gets “ungraded” in communication studies and public relations.

Very little communication comes the way of the football public and the general public of activities being conducted within the walls of the office manned at Bentinck Square.

Unfortunately though, whenever the leadership has opportunities to expound on the work of the SVGFF, they are more regurgitation of historical anecdotes.

This monotony, flavoured with grunts and rants, brands the organisation as one whose future seems to reside permanently in the past.

But silence prevails on the matter of the Goal Project at Diamond, which should have been completed by last February.

Conversely, there were always unofficial reports emanating from the office of the bust-ups among executive members.

The situation boiled over into the public domain with one of the selected committee members, Guy Lowe, being fired by president of the SVGFF Venold Coombs.

In retaliation, Lowe is spilling the beans, exposing some of the alleged vagaries of the national football body.

If true, then a failing grade comes the way of the men and women responsible for carrying the sport forward on a path of respectability.

The allegations of poor accounting practices do not augur well for the organisation, which campaigned on the pillars of transparency and accountability, in seeking to gain the support of the affiliates.

In the fields of secretarial studies and office procedures, the executive has created the most untenable position, in which three persons are needed to perform the role of general-secretary. For this, they get another “ungraded” mark down in the ranking.

If the executive of the national football body were in the school system, it would have surely have been asked to repeat its class, as it would have not gained the required marks for a promotion.

Similarly, had it been an external regional examination, a grade five would have been the obvious rating.

In short, the executive, for the past year, has failed football as it has not come up to trumps.

The onus is now on the executive to re-think, be more focused on its mandate and begin to deliver.

The life of the executive is four years. However, can the affiliates and others who love football endure three more years of inefficiency and below par representation?

The choice is with those who have the rights to vote and recall.

They, the affiliates, have an opportunity on October 13, when a general meeting will be held, to read the riot act on members of the national football executive.