Manager of the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) Elite team, Faizal Khan revealed that the aim of the club is to become the first professional club in Guyana.
According to a report in the Guyana Times today, Khan said, “our ambition is for GFC to be the first professional club in Guyana; Alpha has a professional team already, we want to be the first professional club and we are working towards that in the next four to five years”.
Khan’s comments came at the heels of a discussion centred on the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Stag Elite League.
When questioned on how GFC is able to sustain itself in the league with such an expansive support staff, he explained, “It’s a huge financial resource on our club, at the moment it’s all donations from members”.
“We have some great interest from corporate Guyana which we are being very strategic about as GFC are in a bit of a different position as we own a ground in the middle of the town so our costs are higher… so we want to make sure the sponsors who come on are not just helping us with the team but helping us run the club more efficiently,” he added.
“Underdog Tag”
At the end of the League Genesis, GFC finished in the penultimate position with just three wins from 14 matches; eight losses and three draws. As such, some pundits of the sport have labeled them as the underdogs but can be a “dark horse” to some of the top clubs in the league.
In response to this notion Khan said, “It is important to remember that GFC drew with Slingerz and Alpha last time; we don’t really consider anybody a big team in the League; anybody can beat anybody and get points from anybody”.
As such, he quickly emphasised the importance of having home matches, stating that “we were only beaten once at home and I would be urging the league to allow more teams to play more games at home, because of the fact that when GFC played in our registered home, we were able to pull some good crowds and fans made the difference with the players”.
When quizzed on his overall assessment of the league he said, “I think it’s the fantastic performance that those of us watched when the Golden Jaguars played Suriname; the one and two touch football Guyana were able to play, the fitness of players, is a direct result of a competitive regular National League; so far the Elite League is the best thing that ever happened to Guyana and it must continue”.
