The 2008 CONCACAF FUTSAL championship Caribbean Qualifying Tournament which will be held in Guyana at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall will see Guyana taking on St. Maarten in the first game of the tournament.

The qualifying tournament will take place from March 5-9 and will feature six Caribbean countries competing for two spots in order to qualify for the final of the 2008 CONCACAF World Futsal Championships.

Guyana will fancy their chances of being among the two qualifiers who will join Costa Rica, Panama, the USA, Mexico and hosts Guatemala for the June 2-8 final which will be held at the Domo Polideportivo in Guatemala City.

Three successful teams will then advance to the 2008 Futsal World Cup which will be held in Brazil in mid October.

According to CONCAF, Guyana is in Group `A’ along with St. Maarten and Haiti while Group B consists of Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname.

Local coordinator of the CONCACAF Futsal tournament, Lawrence `Sparrow’ Griffith, said last evening that a squad of 32 players had been shortlisted to undergo three training sessions this weekend at the CASH.

The first session will take place from 6am to 8am while the second session will take place from 6pm to 8pm Saturday evening.

The final session will take place on Sunday morning from 6am-8am.

Griffith said the names of the 32-man squad will be released today.

The squad will eventually be reduced to 12 players.