2008 – Make or break year for Vincentian sports

St Vincent and the Grenadines has had a most slothful start to its World Cup preparatory exercise. This has to do with the acrimonious situation that was the election of officers in the latter part of 2007.

There should otherwise have been a seamless path from one executive to the other such that the development strategy for the World Cup preparations would have been ongoing rather than what currently obtains where we are in a quandary as to precisely where we are going.

World Cup preparations are expensive and extensive. The current football administration has only just begun to appreciate the magnitude of the undertaking and the response has been at best lukewarm. Indeed one comes away with the impression that the approach to the World Cup Preliminaries by the current administration is that the country will participate but with no great enthusiasm or expenditures so that we satisfy the requirements of FIFA. Given the lethargic approach to the Preliminaries thus far it is clear that we are not serious about our participation.

As yet, we have not considered the overall cost of the preparatory exercise. There are no comprehensive budgetary details available to the sporting or general Vincentian public. There is no World Cup Support Committee with a comprehensive plan for this country’s participation in the exercise.

We are well behind in the planning for the World Cup Preliminaries and may well be preparing ourselves for an earlier exit from the proceedings than hitherto.

There is as yet no evidence that the current football administration is in any way, shape or form, serious about World Cup 2010.

We are rolling with the punches and nothing more. Too many things are simply not in place.