Courtesy: Antigua Sun


CFU Futsal tournament moved from Guyana

Friday March 07 2008

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – The Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Futsal tournament has been shifted from Guyana because of security concerns and is now likely to be staged in Trinidad & Tobago next month.

Some participating countries became very apprehensive about travelling to Guyana, following highly publicised recent brutal killings in Lusignan and Bartica.

The CFU discussed the issue at its annual congress in Guadeloupe this past weekend and the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) confirmed at a press conference Tuesday that the tournament is being taken away from Guyana.

“The (CFU) executives felt that Guyana was not in a position to host the tournament and guarantee the safety of the teams,” GFF's president Colin Klass told reporters.

The tournament had been slated to start Wednesday night at the National Sports Hall in Georgetown.

Klass suggested that he was not in agreement with the position taken to move the tournament – a CONCACAF qualifier – from Guyana, but he declared that he was unable to convince participants that they would be safe in Guyana.

“The GFF and the CFU felt that Guyana was still in a position to host this tournament based on the fact that where the tournament was scheduled to be held was miles away from the villages where the necessary outburst took place.

“However, that did not deter the minds of those concerned who wrote to the CFU and the GFF asking for assurances and as you are aware, the GFF manages and oversees football and such assurances we cannot give,” Klass said.

Six nations, including Trinidad & Tobago, Puerto Rico, Haiti, St. Maarten, Suriname and host Guyana were scheduled to participate in the competition.

The tournament is set to qualify two CFU teams for the CONCACAF tournament in Guatemala in June that will advance three teams to the world tournament.

The Caribbean pair would join host Guatemala, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, and the USA for the CONCACAF Futsal tournament.

Futsal is a sport that is a derivative of football and played with five-man teams on a basketball style court.






Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com