Police football team aims at top three finish

Calvin Allen
Calvin Allen

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the resumption of football, Calvin ‘Fluman’ Allen, coach of emerging heavyweight the Guyana Police Force (GPF), declared that the motivation for the team is a top three finish in the eventual new season of the GFF Elite League.

These sentiments were shared during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport yesterday. According to Allen, “With the addition of players to the Elite League team, any finish in the top three would be acceptable. We will give it a push to win the tournament but if we fall short once we finish in top three, I believe the administration would accept the result. Anything from 1-3 would be good. We are a relatively new club and we are looking for a top three finish and will be working towards that.”

The lawmen concluded the previous campaign, which was their maiden appearance at this level in 7th place in the 10 team tournament.

Asked how the current Covid-19 situation has affected the club, he said, “Unfortunately it came at a time personally and for the club at the worst possible time. The club was embarking on a rebuild from top to bottom and we had just adopted a youth arm and a female program to go alongside the B team which is the feeder program for the Elite Team. We have brought to the club in excess of 20 players both male and female and we were looking forward to a good campaign in the Elite League which was set to start a few months back. For the women’s program we brought in some talented and experienced players and was looking forward to their campaign as well. The pandemic is a spoke in our wheel but the entire staff is upbeat about the future of the club.”

Questioned how big of a setback will this current situation have on the state of football, he declared, “It’s massive, looking simply at the football side, our national program was gaining momentum and the coaches were working on what they wanted to get out of the squad. That has suffered a setback. The pandemic has put a halt on everything and hopefully we can get back to where we were initially. It has thrown the entire world back and we hope to recover as fast and as hard as it has hit us.”

Probed if the GFF should provide funding to the clubs and association to alleviate some of the financial losses incurred, Allen said, “Definitely they should give something once they can afford it, once it’s available they definitely should do something for the football community. I don’t know how much they can give or do but there are definitely big financial losses for the clubs.”

He further added, “I know the President of the GFF Wayne Forde and I know once money is available he will do something for the football community. The players are the foundation and without them we have nothing, they should be the first ones who should receive any help.”

He revealed that the change from West Ruimveldt giant Western Tigers to the lawmen became a reality following the development of an uncomfortable relationship between himself and the club’s executive committee.

Allen disclosed, “There came a point where I was uncomfortable in the capacity of head coach of Western Tigers, it had nothing to do with the players who I shared a great relationship with then, but it had to do more with the executives and their close friends. It was a hard decision to move because most of my success as a senior coach was with Western Tigers. I would have gotten results at Fruta Conquerors and GDF but most of the success came at Western Tigers.”

 Allen has had a storied coaching career following stints with high profile sides such as Western Tigers, the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Grove Hi-Tech and Fruta Conquerors.