With less than 41 days before the commencement of the CONCACAF World Qualifiers, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) is unable to finalize a timeline for the commencement of training for the Golden Jaguars programme due to the lack of clearance from the Covid-19 Task Force.
This is according to a source close to the GFF. According to the source, the unavailability of a timeline or a structure for the commencement of national team preparation is due to the non-clearance from the National Covid-19 Task Force. The source stated that while the federation has opened the channels of communications, the continued increase in Covid-19 cases locally renders any attempts to start training a health risk presently.
The source added, “There is no timeline for the resumption of the national team training for the impending FIFA World Cup qualifiers. The GFF is awaiting guidance from the National Covid-19 Taskforce before a plan or structure is implemented for training to commence, only then will the team enter training and not before due to safety reasons surrounding players and coaches as well as officials.”
According to the source, the uncertainty of a possible timeline for the resumption of training will certainly affect the quality of the team’s preparation ahead of this important period. The source added that a rigorous training schedule will have to be employed by the federation to ensure that the team is efficiently prepared for the assignments that await.
“The longer it takes for the green light to be given by the authorities to the start of the training, the likelihood that a robust structure will have to be implemented given the short period of time that will remain for actual preparation. While a robust plan would have to be implemented in any case because local football has been dormant for months owing to the health crisis, the closer the timeframe counts down to the matches, the more rigorous the preparation period will have to be to ensure that the team is prepared,” the source added.
The Golden Jaguars were drawn in group-F in the first round of the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers. Guyana was paired alongside Caribbean giant and traditional rival Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts and Nevis, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.
The Golden Jaguars will commence their campaign against Trinidad and Tobago in October before matching skills with the Bahamas in the final match of this period. In the November window, Marcio Maximo’s charges will lock horns with St. Kitts and Nevis before concluding the first round campaign against Puerto Rico.
Guyana’s best attempt to qualify for the prestigious FIFA World Cup occurred in the 2014 qualifiers, after securing a berth to the third stage of qualifying round, which is the penultimate section of the confederation’s qualification process.
The second round will feature the respective group winners battling in a home and away series during the March 2021 match window, with the three resulting victors progressing to the final round which will consist of eight teams, five of whom are ranked 1-5 on the CONCACAF standings. Upon the conclusion of the final round, the top three teams will qualify to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The fourth placed finisher will contest the Confederation Playoff.
