Venold Coombs and leadership

Fri, Sept 30. 2011

Editor: Venold Steve Coombs has vanquished his contenders Michael John and Patrick Horne who competed with him for the presidency of the local Football Federation. In the election process, he also vanquished some personal foes of his, who cast aspersions on his character during the hectic campaign leading up to the September 24th elections.{{more}}

Coombs was in political circles as a teenager. At the age of sixteen years, he allied himself to the formidable People’s Political Party, led by the then Charismatic Ebenezer Joshua, this country’s first Chief Minister. As a political disciple of Joshua, Venold Coombs would amassed tremendous insight on the art of swaying others, the viable strategies that could be employed to defeat your opponents in an election race, and most important, the advocacy of an attractive programme to which your would be supporters would gravitate. Obviously, Coombs used his knowledge base, in addition to asserting his previous stint as President of the Football Federation to his advantage in bringing about the demise of is competitors. Moreover, Coombs’ soaring popularity in sports and small social circles contributed immensely to his recent presidential victory.

Indeed, there is a mood of ambivalence on Coombs’ elevation to the presidency of the Football Federation. In some sporting circles, many persons, football stakeholders, notably those in the corporate sector, are unanimous in the view that Coombs will do a better job than his predecessors; others have expressed the view that he has a workable and realistic programme for the future of Football; and, of course, there are those who are optimistic that there will be a positive turning point in contemporary Football here in SVG. Still, others are exceedingly satisfied that Coombs has an excellent team of workers, including his 1st Vice President Lloyd Small, an able administrator in his own right, along with a gamut of other officials and experienced footballers.

There are those persons who are diametrically opposed to Coombs’ elevation to the presidency and who openly ventilate their fears about his autocratic style of leadership coupled with his insufferable arrogance. These qualities, they feel, could get him into deep waters with his colleagues in the executive arm of the Football Federation. They also point to his occasional outbursts of rage and an explosive temper, which need to be governed. They hope, though, that with age and experience, two grateful factors in one’s life, the new president will vindicate himself. Coombs, on the other hand, being no stranger to management in the realm of sports, he having managed Victors cricket team for 33 years, now has the challenge to prove to his critics and detractors that he has the capacity, the intelligence and vision to execute his leadership abilities in the interest of Football development.

Patmos Richards