Shabazz: I have a two-year contract which commenced in May this year. At the end of one year it will be reviewed to ensure that both parties are satisfied.
GR: There is a general feeling that as Technical Director you have done well. What do you feel are your own fundamental accomplishments - on the one hand - and have you had any disappointments?
Shabazz: I think the most important achievement for me so far has been getting people to work together and not to see the task as a one-man job. I have developed a wonderful relationship with the coaches Wayne Dover and Kavin Pearce and the management team of Aubrey Hutson, Frank Parris and Rawle Adams. We live and worked as brothers; so much so that the relationships that I have fostered with them are even closer than those that I have in the coaching fraternity in Trinidad and Tobago. I feel Guyanese, I am treated as such by the local coaches. If in the course of my two years here we can succeed in having the various fraternities work together then I think we would have accomplished a lot.
DD: What do you consider to be the essence of your job over the remaining period of your contract?
Shabazz: The most important aspect of the job is to revive football in Guyana, to take the flag out of the dust and to make it shine again and to make people in Caribbean football become aware that we have a potent product coming out of Guyana. That entailed us focusing on the senior team which is the flagship team of Guyana's football. Now that we have accomplished that mission I have also got to work closely with the technical development officer, Mr. Lyndon France, who will focus more on development. At this stage, unfortunately, we have got to hit the road running and focus on competition. For you to garner the interest of the businessmen you need to deliver results. Hopefully, in the coming months we will be able to put the structure in place to enable kids to understand the rudiments of the game.
DD: Doesn't the fact that we are driven by a culture of competitions because of the demand for winning place our football in a position where we simply move from one competition to the next without really stopping to focus on the refinement of our game?
Shabazz: I agree. That is why we need to begin with the youngsters. This Under-15 team that is in Trinidad right now for the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) tournament must be the team that we can gauge over the next two years. When this team returns we should keep the players together to teach them things that are not necessarily related to football but to personal development. We must also continue to expose them so that in two years time they become the U-17/18 team and in eight to 10 years time the senior national team. This is what we call development. In the process they will lose matches against tough opponents but both the team and the coaching staff must be given time to develop. Often the coach gets fired when you don't get the results. But when you give a coach just two or three months to prepare a team it is impossible to get results against countries which have an ongoing programmes - countries like Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and even some of the other islands now. What is needed in this country is a long-term programme where the players continue to train and to develop social skills and a sense of good personal hygiene among other things. These things clearly cannot be learnt in one or two months.
GR: Indiscipline plagued football in Guyana for years. There has been indiscipline in relation to the administration of the game. How much of a problem has the discipline issue been for you?
Shabazz: We are now bringing in people to teach them things like how to eat at the table, how to conduct themselves when they go out there. It has been a challenge but it is a challenge that we are up to and we have to beat them into line. It is a constant fight. As recent as a week ago when we were in Brazil we almost had to send home a player for simple things. Taking things that don't belong to them was a major problem when I came to this team. Now, it has diminished considerably. With the senior team it is much easier because a lot of these players are now full time professionals and they have been exposed to a lot of different things. We also have players who were not born in Guyana and who bring to the table some positive things. I think the discipline is an area that the GFF and the Ministry of Sport must pay close attention to.
DD: Is there a correlation between the attitude of the players and the effectiveness which they assimilate what you are trying to impart?
Shabazz: Definitely! A lot of the players want to play how they want to play. You want them to take two touches. They want to take three. It is a constant battle. This is the challenge because you've got to win them over and get them to buy into the coaching because some of them are stubborn and up for the challenge of showing you that you cannot get them to change.
DD: Is it a matter of being rebellious or are they just unable to take two touches?
Shabazz: No. These are very good players. I think it is really an attitude. But it's a Caribbean thing. It's just a little bit more pronounced here. Because they see the coach as just another figure that they've grown to despise. You ask him about the teacher and again he does not want to hear about the teacher. The teacher is protesting for more money and is not spending enough time working with him. When he looks at the religious leader - whether Muslim, Hindu or Christian - in the most part he sees somebody who is not practicing. This is no knock on the religious leaders. So he is also not motivated there. When it comes to the policeman as an authority figure he sees the police as an instrument of aggression. So we are running out of authority figures. When he sees the coach he automatically sees another father, another teacher, another police officer, because the coach often has to play all of those roles. This is the challenge and this is what makes coaching so difficult in a lot of countries. In Europe, the kids have a different situation to the kids in the Caribbean. Our colonial past has seen to that. It is a different challenge and it is not something that coaches can handle by themselves.
DD: Are you surprised that given our proximity to Brazil more of that country's success in the game has not rubbed off on our own standards?
Shabazz : Yes, I am surprised. I would advise the Federation to leave CFU. This will be very controversial but it will benefit Guyana's football 10 years down the road. Financially a move like this would also benefit the local game. Eight years ago Venezuela had no standing in South American football. They have developed and now Venezuela can compete in South America. If Guyana starts to play in South America now they will find it difficult to compete. In eight years time, however, constantly competition against countries like Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina will definitely develop a higher standard of play here. I think one of the best things that can happen to Guyana's football is to have it move out of the CFU and into the South American zone.
DD: In the last few years regional football has had something to shout about in terms of, first, Jamaica then Trinidad and Tobago getting to the World Cup finals. Are you seeing that as an indication that regional football on the whole is on an upward curve or is that just an aberration?
Shabazz: I think the fact that the Jamaican team was made up of a lot of children of Jamaicans who migrated and were professionalized in England made a huge difference. Those players understood what it takes to qualify. The Trinidad and Tobago team was also made up of a lot of players who played professionally in Europe and who passed through the different ranks of youth football. This has helped Caribbean football.
DD: Where is the money to come from to meet the high cost of developing our football?
Shabazz: I think that the problem is more a lack of will than a lack of money. Trinidad and Tobago has money now. Barbados also has money. The money can come if you have the will, the desire and a plan.
DD: Where exactly is Guyana located in terms of beginning to possibly dream of a World Cup finals?
Shabazz: I think that the Golden Jaguars will get to the point where they will excite the population in terms of attempting to qualify for the World Cup. I think that we have a team that can challenge any team in the Caribbean including Jamaica and Trinidad and Trinidad and Tobago but we still lack the resources to enhance the programme. I think that the GFF must see it as their duty to equip themselves with the ability to bring funding to fund these programmes. There must be some young person coming out of the University of Guyana who the Federation can employ to go and find the funding for these programmes. The margin for error when you play a Trinidad and Tobago or Jamaica or Costa Rica or USA or Mexico is very little. Players must be constantly playing at that level where they understand that the can't take two touches but have got to do it in one touch. So we continue to do well against the Guadeloupes and the Antiguas but were going to struggle when it comes to the other countries.
DD: Is that funding available from the GFF's coffers taking into consideration the fact that the GFF receives an annual grant of US$250,000 from FIFA?
Shabazz: That US$250,000 given by FIFA is not really for competition it is for development and that is still so small. I will explain. The budget for Jamaica to reach the World Cup was just under US$12m. In Trinidad and Tobago Jack Warner alone put up US$10m. So this is a costly project but if the people and the government look at it from what it can bring to the country we can go forward. It is more than a football thing it's a national thing and the different arms of the government must also bear the burden of the cost. We must also view it from the standpoint of what it can do to motivate a people. When Guyana does well at cricket you hear of a Clive Lloyd or a Rohan Kanhai or in the case of boxing a Lennox Blackmore. It puts the Guyanese in a different psyche. It makes the people feel proud to be a Guyanese and it says something to those who look down at Guyanese people, who refuse to give basic travelling courtesies to Guyanese people. It gives them a different thought. It makes them understand that Guyanese are a people with talent. Sports and culture can break down barriers that no amount of political savvy or diplomacy can touch. If a Guyana team qualifies for the World Cup to be held in the United States it becomes far easier to make a case for United States visas for those players. So automatically you can see where barriers are broken down. This is why even the politicians must see the importance of not only football but sport. You've seen it in Jamaica. The government of Jamaica won elections because of what they put in to the Reggae Boyz during the campaign. It did not come after they qualified. In Trinidad and Tobago it came on the fringe but they still were able to sneak in. In Islam we say he who comes while struggle is going on is better than he who comes after it has been accomplished.
DD: Do you think in the Guyana context that there is sufficient awareness or consciousness of the nexus between football -or any sport for that matter - and the national prestige?
Shabazz: Not yet, but I believe that the presence of the new personnel in the Ministry of Sport will help to bring us closer to that. I think that the present Minister of Sport is equipped with a better understanding of how important it is to demonstrate both to the people and the politicians what sport can do for a country like Guyana.
DD: What about a situation in which choices have to be made and those choices involve roads and water and other essentials? What should the government do then?
Shabazz: I think that if the will is there we can go forward. There are so many different agencies in the world, Brazil, for instant is Guyana'd neighbour and in Boa Vista they have afforded the GFF access to training facilities free of charge. We don't have to pay for meals or for accommodation. That offer is now open. How did we get that? We went and we searched for help. If we have a plan in place, a policy for sports, a development programme, then the next stage is to put a cost to it and to send out your foot soldiers. There are embassies that will be only too happy to fund bits and pieces, Brazil is close, America is there all we have to say to somebody like America who complains so much about Guyana that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness and I am sure that they will help. But if we don't present a proper plan with a budget then they will say we can't do this.
DD: For more than 30 years we have had diplomatic relations with Brazil and were always sending delegations to Brazil to discuss economic and trade issues. What about formal approaches to Brazil in the area of sport? Do you think that we may have lost opportunities in that area?
Shabazz: Yes, and there is also Cuba. We we could send, as an investment, five people to train as physiotherapists every two years because our athletes suffer from overused injuries. There are not enough people in Guyana to deal with the injuries situation. Cuba would willingly provide training for four or five people. Brazil too. But first we must have a plan, every national association must bring to the Ministry of Sport a development programme for the next four years. The Ministry of Sport must source help to sit down with the national associations to develop these plans.
Then the Ministry of Finance must provide personnel to sit with these people to develop the budget. Sport is no longer just a game. An athlete today a Minister tomorrow - but he can also be a bandit or a terrorist tomorrow. Whom do we prefer to meet in the darkness of the night 10 years from now a kid who understands his role as an athlete in the national development process or a kid who just wants - by any means necessary - to have a dollar in his pocket?
