The National Under-17 football squad preparing for the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) qualification tournament next week was holed up in the volatile Linden community as residents started a five-day protest over a hike in electricity tariff.
Reports coming out of the mining town indicate that Police fired rubber bullets on protesters who staged a protest on the main bridge separating Mackenzie and Wismar yesterday. The footballers, who are due to wing out to neighbouing Trinidad and Tobago this weekend, started a one-week live-in camp over the weekend in Linden ahead of their departure for the twin-island republic.
Stabroek Sport has learnt that efforts are being made by the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) to have the players return to Georgetown as the situation in Linden worsens. Reports state that the team’s training was affected yesterday due to the protest action.
Efforts to contact the team management and GFF officials last evening proved futile.
The 21 players and six officials are housed in Mackenzie but they trained at the Wisburg ground in Wismar. The team is being coached by leading junior coach Sampson Gilbert. Guyana will compete against Suriname, British Virgin Islands and Trinidad and Tobago in the Group tie from July 24-28 in Port-of-Spain.
The Junior Golden Jaguars will open their campaign against Suriname next Tuesday and will then clash with BVI on July 26 before taking on Trinidad and Tobago on July 28.
The final round of CFU qualifiers will include the five qualifying group winners, as well as the top second-place team.
The top three teams from the qualifiers will advance to the CONCACAF Under-17 Championship, which will be held in Panama early next year. The top three teams from the Panama play-off will qualify for the Under-17 World Cup Finals, which will be held in the United Arab Emirates in summer next year.
