Dear Editor,
The Caribbean Cup is played bi-annually by the affiliates of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) and under its auspices. The format initially is a round robin, with each team in the respective group playing each other once, and the top two teams from each group advancing to the next round. The defending champion and host are excluded from the preliminaries, drawing a bye in the process.
Surely, by now I would have thought that with the resignation of Mr Austin ‘Jack‘ Warner from all football portfolios, including President of CONCACAF and Vice President, of FIFA, in addition to the suspension of a few individuals following investigations by FIFA into the (in)famous bribes for votes scandal involving Mohammed Bin Hamm, who eventually received a life ban, things would be different.
However, with all the assurances and pledges of an improved image for the CFU following the election of office bearers, it continues to baffle my mind as to why the more things change, the more they remain the same.
Within this context, I hope CFU can provide the relevant answers. Suffice it to say that the group consisted of (host) St Lucia, St Vincent, Curaçao and Guyana. Please see below the group’s tabulation. Therefore, the group winner in my estimation is St Vincent, by virtue of a superior goal difference of +4, as against 2nd place Guyana, whose goal difference is +3. Editor, the standard procedure should have obtained, in accordance with the Statutes of FIFA and utilizing the
League/round-robin format. “Whenever two or more teams finish with a similar amount of points, head to head victories are used to determine the winner. Should a similar position be obtained at the end of the tabulation (head to head) the next step is goal difference.” Within this context it’s a bitter pill to swallow that a reversal of a CFU executive decision was obtained overnight, placing Guyana ahead of St Vincent. This in essence places Guyana in a group with (host) Grenada, Haiti and French Guiana, by virtue of winning the group, when in actuality as runner-up it should play in a group with (host) Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba and Suriname. Nevertheless, as said above, the more things change, the more they remain the same. Why was Guyana not placed in the group with Trinidad and Tobago?
Yours faithfully,
Lester Sealey