Game off: CFU circus continues as T&T U23’s opener now postponedBy Lasana Liburd (wired868.com)
Three days and as many decisions. God knows the trauma that Trinidad and Tobago’s National Under-23 football players have endured over the past week.
One thing now beyond dispute is that the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) has only made things worse.
Today, the “Soca Warriors” were advised that their 2016 Olympic qualifying fixture against Suriname will be postponed until Thursday June 25 in Puerto Rico while the group match days should play on Thursday, Saturday and Monday respectively.
Yesterday, the CFU ordered Trinidad and Tobago to face Suriname at 10.30 pm tonight while, on Monday, the game was declared as abandoned in favour of the Warriors with the Dutch-speaking nation ruled out of the competition.
And, Sunday and before, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago were expected to face each other at 5.30 pm today.
Caribbean football officials have been admonished, en masse, for corruption ever since the Mohamed Bin Hammam bribery scandal in 2011. While the FBI has already issued warrants for two past and present regional administrators, including Trinidad’s Jack Warner.
But incompetence is just as glaring an issue in the Caribbean, which, by virtue of its number of member associations, has the most political clout in CONCACAF.
Granted the ineptitude is, arguably, not restricted to the governing body in this case.
The four participating nations, host Puerto Rico and guests, Suriname, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago, knew the tournament location and fixtures since 21 April 2015. None of the travelling nations attempted to secure visas until nearly mid-June.
And, as it turned out, the United States Embassy began experiencing serious technical problems on May 26.
“The Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs is currently experiencing technical problems with our overseas passport and visa systems,” stated the US Embassy’s website. “This issue is not specific to any particular country, citizenship document, or visa category… Passport applications accepted overseas or after May 26, 2015 are affected by this delay.
“If you applied for a U.S. passport overseas during this time frame and have travel plans within the next 10 business days, please consider requesting an emergency passport…”
Warriors team manager David Muhammad is not alone in suggesting the CFU erred in putting a Caribbean competition on one of the few islands in the region that requires visas for entry.
And Muhammad urged CFU officials to follow the example provided by Canada, who host the July Pan American Games and also insists on visas for travellers.
Read more:
http://wired868.com/2015/06/24/game-off-cfu-circus-continues-as-tt-u23s-opener-now-postponed/