2008 – Make or break year for Vincentian sports

What is probably going to happen is that the administration will in reality commence serious planning for the future of the sport here in earnest during the course of this year and we can perhaps see some progress in 2009. There is nothing wrong with such an approach but the football fraternity must be told this in advance and not be misled into believing that something else is happening.

The current administration made an early faux pas in its indication that women’s football was going to be placed on the back burner. The response from the women involved forced the executive to recant no sooner than it had concluded its original position.

The local football federation is yet to name a Secretary to engage the day-to-day work that is tremendous. This fact reflects a failure to understand the undertaking in which the executive members have involved themselves. It is not possible for any serious football governing body at the national level to operate solely on part-time volunteers leading the way. The FIFA understood this only too well and urged its affiliates to ensure that the secretary is someone who is full-time and operates like a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). This is yet to happen in St Vincent and the Grenadines and is an indictment of all administrations of the game since FIFA gave its approval of this arrangement.

Clearly the administrators do not yet have a full grasp of the football situation. One would have thought that this was undertaken well before offering themselves up for office.

In 2008, therefore, football would have to engage in more deliberate analysis and commence decisive action in the interest of the genuine development of the sport. The burning of bridges between past and preset executives bodes for no good. The sport is about athletes, not administrators. The sooner the administrators of the game, past and present, recognise this fact the better for the future of the sport in St Vincent and the Grenadines.