I guess I should had a better look first before posting, I deaded my own thread
BARRED BY Fifa from fielding their hastily arranged collection of British club players, the Cayman Islands crashed to a 4-0 defeat to Cuba in their opening World Cup qualifier in Havana on Sunday.
The tiny British dependent territory had hoped to bolster their World Cup qualifying chances by including seven British-based club players in their side, but a ruling by world football's governing body blocked their new recruits from taking part.
"I was very disappointed. We played this game under protest. But we felt compelled to abide by the ruling," Costa Takkas, the general secretary of the Cayman Islands Football Association, said. The absence of the British- based players was painfully visible as the superior Cuban team secured an easy win with goals from Luis Marten, Ariel Alvarez, Sergei Prado and Miguel Gandara.
An angry Takkas could only look for excuses after the game. "The pitch [at Havana's Pedro Marrero stadium] was absolutely disgraceful," he said. "Undulations all over the place, bumpy and, in my opinion, dangerous."
Takkas added that the British players who had travelled to the Cayman Islands to prepare for the World Cup qualifiers had been disappointed by the Fifa decision, which stated that only Cayman- born nationals or five-year residents in the dependent territory could play for the team. "They were devastated. The reason they had made the trip to the Caymans was to play international football," he said.
With the help of an agent, Barry McIntosh, the Caymans had been hoping to take advantage of what they thought was a loophole in Fifa regulations, and use their status as a country under British rule to call up British players with no connection to the Caymans.
Of the seven chosen for the squad, only Neil Sharpe, of the Ryman League side Boreham Wood, and David Barnett, the Lincoln City defender who is on loan at Forest Green Rovers, flew to Havana to watch Sunday's match. The rest, including Fulham's Barry Hayles and Wayne Allison of Tranmere Rovers, returned to England. "They felt compelled to go back to their clubs and report as soon as possible," Takkas said.
Takkas added he still hoped that players linked to the Caymans through marriage or descendancy could play for the team. Both Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago have recruited British-born players in recent years by this method.
In other qualifiers on Sunday, the Manchester City striker Shaun Goater hit a hat-trick for Bermuda in their 5-1 away win over the British Virgin Islands. The US Virgin Islands fared even worse, losing 9-0 away to St Vincent and the Grenadines, for whom Crewe Alexandra's Rodney Jack grabbed a treble.
Russia
The Russian Football Federation has rejected an application for a team from Chechnya to join its league. A club from the war-torn republic had asked for permission to enter the regionalised Second Division.
Chechnya's Terek Grozny competed in the First Division until the war began in 1994. The Premier Division will have two clubs from the region for the first time this season: Dagestan's Anji Makhachkala and the 1995 Russian champions, Alania Vladikavkaz.
