It has been a long time coming, but the Office of the Minister of State, Local Government & Special Projects, responsible for Sports, has taken the initiative to solve the problem of the high cost of accommodation for visiting sporting groups to Antigua/Barbuda.
About three (3) years ago, the Ministry heard the cries of the vari-ous sporting associations and clubs in their plight of hosting vis-iting teams participating in tournaments. As such, the old Nurses’ Hostel at the Holberton Hospital has been undergoing ex-tensive renovation for this purpose.
Although not entirely completed, Sports Stakeholders were given a tour of the facilities, on Tuesday, June 22. A number of ideas were discussed with a view to coming up with plans to raise the necessary funding to complete the project and the best way for its operation.
According to the Ministry, a Board or Committee will shortly be put in place and the facility turned over to this care-taker body. In this connection, a follow up meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, June 6, at the Ministry’s headquarters at Cassada Gardens.
Associations and Clubs representatives, including President of the Golf Association, Eddy Smith, Vice President of the Netball Association, Fitz Brathwaite, representatives of the Athletic As-sociation, Les Williams and Teddy Daley, President of Wings Sports Club, Lucaso Brumant and President of Young Warriors, Colin James, all expressed their delight for what they consider as a solution to the high cost of accommodation for tournaments.
It is hoped that whatever the make up of the committee put in place to operate the facilities, that it will run it professionally and keep up the maintenance regularly.
Step in the right direction as ABFA conducts club development seminars
The Seminar was declared open by President of the ABFA, Ever-ton (Batow) Gonsalves, who expressed his disappointment for the low number turn-out. Although there are forty-eight (48) clubs registered with the ABFA, no more than eight (8) clubs took advantage of this important Club development exercise.
It was also revealed that of the forty-eight (48) registered clubs, only twelve (12) have ever submitted their constitution to the As-sociation. As such, part of the exercise was to provide clubs with the framework to have their constitutions in compliance with the ABFA.
Among the delegates present were members of the Wings Sports Club, Lucaso Brumant and Clem Roberts, representatives of Empire Football Club, Hoppers, Old Road, Potters, Freemans-ville and Bassa.
Similar seminars will be held on July 3 and 4 at the Multi-purpose Cultural Centre.
The Antigua/Barbuda Football Associa-tion has embarked on a series of semi-nars geared to enhancing club develop-ment. The exercise commenced on Satur-day, June 26, at the Multi-purpose Cul-tural Centre, Perry Bay, 9:00 A.M.—4:30 P.M.
The facilitators of the Seminar are local Economist, Ms. Petra Williams and Gen-eral Secretary of the ABFA, Gordon (Banks) Derrick.
NAME: Mr Richard Henry TEL: +1 268 562 1675/1680 FAX: +1 268 562 - 1681 EMAIL: permanentsecretarysports@gmail.com or: permanentsecretarysports@gmail.com ADDRESS: Office of the Minister of State: Sports and Recreation, Boys Training School and National School Meals
Cassada Gardens
St. John's