More than a matter of sport
The disclosure that there exists a disparity between the ‘conditions of service’ afforded the Guyana men’s national soccer team, on the one hand, and those ‘enjoyed’ by their female counterparts (‘the Lady Jags’), on the other, would have been shocking to many Guyanese. To require our ‘Lady Jags’ to perform acts of national service no different from those asked of their male counterparts and afford the men alone material compensation for their efforts, is, to put it bluntly, not just unacceptable but downright offensive; and it matters little the circumstances that attend this ugly state of affairs.
This country, at the level of the state, subscribes to gender equality in every sphere of national life. That policy stands in irreconcilable contrast with the outrage of the extant discrimination against the ‘Lady Jags.’ Nothing can justify it and for the sake of the nation (not the GFF but the nation) it has to be corrected with due haste.
As an aside and assuming that the state is aware of this shocking circumstance, the mind boggles as to why – presumably over a considerable period of time – there has been no remedial intervention. Equally mystifying is the fact that the absurdity of such gender discrimination at the level of a national sport may well be common knowledge only amongst those who are, in one sense or another, close to the game
In a sense, the proverbial chickens have come home to roost. Having squabbled for years over whether or not soccer and the state ought to be poles apart and never the twain shall meet, we are discovering that there are circumstances that have to do with national image and pride which cut across those puerile arguments. When the Golden Jaguars, whatever the gender of the team, ‘turn out’ on the field of play they do so for the nation. That is where this particular argument must end. So that the fact that the ‘Lady Jags’ are not being materially compensated for keeping the Golden Arrowhead flying in circumstances where their male counterparts are, amounts to a national disgrace, no less.
If earlier protestations with the GFF by the ‘Lady Jags’ bore no fruit then our female ‘ballers’ would have had every right to take their concern ‘upstairs.’ There is, accordingly, a tasteless triteness that attends Federation President Wayne Forde’s rant about the Lady Jags not availing themselves “of the opportunity to raise their concerns directly with the Federation’s executive,” presumably rather than taking their gripe to the First Lady, Here’s the bottom line, Mr. Forde. You of all persons ought to have been acutely aware of this outrage early in the piece. Should you (and the rest of the Federation), not, long ago, have been seriously engaging the Lady Jags on this matter, long ago, limiting cause for them to look elsewhere for a solution?
But it is not only at the feet of the GFF and its President that the responsibility for this travesty should be laid. Assuming that government, through the Ministry of Sport, were itself aware of this travesty, then the issue of national pride ought to have been made to supersede axioms that have to do with the FIFA-dictated autonomy of the GFF and football. Accordingly, government should have invoked its policy in the matter of treatment no less favourable for women to demand (not request but demand) that the Federation ‘fix it’ with maximum alacrity.
Going beyond that, it seems that the Federation, once the matter had arrived in the public domain, ought to have been treading carefully through what is, in effect, the dodgy ‘playing surface’ on which it finds itself. It should have assumed a posture of contriteness and contemplation, moving immediately to narrow the gap between the absurdity of the discriminatory circumstance, on the one hand, and, the desirable position, on the other. It opted instead to issue what turned out to be an illadvised, media release which, made its own playing surface even more treacherous than it had been, originally, the admonition of the ‘Lady Jags’ for looking elsewhere for a possible solution being the standout faux pas.
Platitudes and promises such as those proffered in the GFF’s media release will not ‘cut it’ here. The gender discrimination argument that is embedded in the ‘Lady Jags’ grouse makes it much more than a matter of football. It is a matter of the policy of the state on the issue of the treatment of women and it should not be allowed to go away without satisfactory corrective measures.