Wednesday, April 23, 2008

GFA to elect new Executive

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, April 23 – Candidates vying for the presidency of the Grenada Football Association (GFA) continue to crisscross the island in an attempt to canvass votes for elections on Saturday.

Ashley “Ram” Folkes, the incumbent, Cheney Joseph, a vice-president and Paul Roberts, a former director, are all seeking to become the new President of the GFA.

The presidential candidates have been meeting with representatives of affiliates and presenting their slate as well as an agenda for the running of the association for the next four years.

One of the first tasks of the new GFA administration will be to give attention to Grenada’s hosting of the CONCACAF World Cup Qualification game between Grenada and Costa Rica on June 14.

The new officers will also be forced to reorganise the GFA which has been dogged with accusations of poor administration over the past three years.

The elections of officers will be held during the Annual General Meeting of the GFA at the auditorium of the Grenada Boys’ Secondary School (GBSS) on Saturday.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Editor,

Three persons are vying for the key position of President of the Grenada Football Association and I believe all three candidates have football at heart – both on and off the field. They have played national football and have been involved with teams and clubs.

However, the GFA needs more than just these accomplishments – the GFA needs leadership. I am not taking anything away from the incumbent Ram Folkes but I think the GFA needs to move above aboard.

I believe what has affected the most recent administration is too many self-serving people have found comfort within the leadership and that in itself has impacted severely on the effective running of the association.

But I must admit that Ram Folkes has brought a high level of maturity to the association and once he has good ‘shepherds’ I think he should be able to move forward. However, he is saddled with an association which has failed on a number of issues including proper planning and preparation of our National Teams, and the domestic leagues.

Folkes must also be commended for ensuring that the association doesn’t degenerate into chaos and confusion. So Ram Folkes is still and electable candidate.

Paul Roberts may be best known for his football exploits particularly as a goalkeeper especially in the 70s when club football in Grenada was at its best but I don’t think Roberts have been able to impress Council that he is a good administrator.
He is known to quit when the going gets tough.

The other candidate is Cheney Joseph who I believe stands a very good chance. Cheney, as a Vice President, has been very outspoken and may be able to bring about change especially the ‘warring’ factions.

The bottom-line is that you need to find people who are committed to the sport and not self fulfilling. Too many times you hear about the squabbling among executive members for either managers of teams or traveling to meetings. While this is commonplace there is no need to degenerate the association into that kind of melee.

Anonymous said...

It shows the poor planning of the GFA. I heard Bascombe reading some information that our national team is to play a match against Trinidad this weekend and nothing official from the GFA. They should realize that this is world cup preparations and not a windward islands tournament.
I believe that the GFA has given Daniel too much control and he runs the association as an extension of his club.

Anonymous said...

I think that Puerto Rico can't make the trip to Trinidad and they have asked Grenada to replace them.
What is happening with the preparation of the game in terms of informing the public about tickets? I believe that there should be a local organizing committee to help the association.