Home The Big Scores Football players support group completes registration, officially formalised

Football players support group completes registration, officially formalised

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The organisation, in 2021, made a donation to the family of then gravely ill former national and Parham defender, Eustace “Barba” Ferrance.(File photo)

By Neto Baptiste

Having first come public about the initiative back in 2020, principals of the Football Past Players Support Inc, a group dedicated to assisting past and present players in need of urgent support, has officially been registered as a non-profit organisation.

This is according to president Fitzgerald Semper, who said that although the group had long started assisting those in need, members of the public can now support by making donations via their newly opened account at ECAB as they seek to spread their branches even further.

“The initial idea that Steveroy Anthony came up with, was to really help persons who are struggling and this was for past footballers primarily. However, we have extended it to even present footballers who are going through difficult times. We could help them when it comes to medical assistance and many other assistance that is within our reach, so our aim really is just to gather funds and gather material that can assist people in times of difficulty,” he said. 

The organisation, in 2021, made a donation to the family of then gravely ill former national and Parham defender, Eustace “Barba” Ferrance. The former player subsequently died from a suspected case of viral encephalitis or inflammation of the brain caused by a virus in December last year.

Semper said the foundation will not only be assisting past players, but current players as well.

“We can’t guarantee we can give 100 percent support in any situation, but we can give as much support as we can to those persons going through difficult times. So, we have already started to do some of that on a very limited scale, but that is basically what we are about,” the president said.

Public Relations Officer, Wesley Simon, revealed that at least two sub-committees have been formed in an effort to make the body’s operations much smoother.

“If someone comes and says that there is someone out there who needs some help, then we have a vetting committee which comprises three people — Ivor Luke, Garry Gonsalves and Derrick Edwards. We also have the fundraising committee which is Arlene Josiah, Karen Francis and Dale Thwaites because we would like to see funds start to come in; we want to start to put our foot out there and start to help people,” he said.

The body will attend a church service at Jennings New Testament Church on March 27.

Members of the public who wish to donate can do so via the foundation’s account at ECAB. The account number is 112000577.