Football’s iniquitous culture in full bloom

The upcoming election of a new Executive for the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation is the hot topic, and is burning up the airwaves, the street corners, and it most sporting discussions which take place.{{more}}

It is side-stepping the current engagements of the senior national male Football team Vincy Heat’s campaign in the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers.

But as the election date, Saturday, September 24, draws near, the discussions are bringing the true personalities of some of the persons who claim to love the sport of Football to light.

One can sense there is poisonous venom lodged in the small but destructive organ which we possess, called the tongue.

What angers many, though, is that it is only at election time that persons can point to the woes of the sport and readily provide the panaceas.

Affiliates and other stakeholders in the main remain passive, but are agitated and vocal when this time is at hand.

Whilst pertinent to public discourse are critical analyses of processes and policies of those who lead and those in waiting, the manner in which it is done separates reasoning from rancour.

That is in train as we near the September 24 date with destiny.

The ingrained culture of pulling down each other for the sake of gaining some votes has overtaken the consciences of many.

Mirroring the national political landscape, the Football election has taken the treacherous and vile route.

From character assassination to some unsavoury, baseless and at times injurious comments, we seemed gripped with hatred and envy for each other; simply we do not respect others viewpoint.

Also, some current Executive members, as the jostling continues, have not escaped the dragnet of disfiguring the integrity of others.

Football is already in the abyss of despair and hopelessness, that the ongoing campaigning, if one may choose such a terminology, further downgrades its status.

Maybe, it is the combative nature the happenings why many who have the capacity to serve at the national level become disinterested, for fear of their good name and that of their family be mired, in what is passed off for campaigning.

So are we going to do like what occurs on the broader political front, ridicule, defame and malign each other, then when everything is over call for a truce, embrace the together now slogan?

Sadly, this has not worked nationally and certainly will not work with Football administration.

The 2007 election was a testimony of how abrasive the politics of Football could be to cause persons to view the national sphere as a poisoned chalice.

So why should we open up sores now, then look for band aids after, when we could prevent the lacerations in the first place?

The beautiful game of Football is meant to be a gel between persons, but the social cohesion intended is being detached with the verbal fights.

With exactly two weeks left before the ballots are cast, there is enough time for the guilty parties to atone themselves with sober thoughts, and discuss the policies, programmes and projections and let the affiliates take an intellectual path when making their decisions.

Let us get with it, as our neighbours Barbados did recently, where for their elections to the Barbados Cricket Association Executive candidates took out advertorials as well as displayed intellectual heft, with the production of policy papers.

Let us get debates on how you plan to excavate the sport from its present state; instead of the personality bashing that is taking place.

It is not too late for the offenders and their cohorts to say sorry, and from here on in apply maturity and sanity to the electoral process.

Football is the game of the people, and we should live it by our positive actions, thoughts, deeds and pronouncements.

Our beloved St. Vincent and the Grenadines has too much to deal with economically, socially and politically, and another woe is one more too much for us to bear.

Football should be the best administered sport here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as it has the privileged position of assured funding for its programmes from the world governing body, FIFA, and enjoys paid staff members to run its affairs on a daily basis.

So, to whom much is given, much is expected.