Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Normalization Committee Chairman Clinton Urling stated that unlike Golden Jaguars head-coach Jamaal Shabazz and assistant coach Wayne Dover, Lady Jaguar’s tactician Mark Rodrigues has not been signed to a two-year contract.
Shabazz and Dover signed two-year contracts respectively with the federation on March 3rd 2015 for an undisclosed amount to take charge of the senior and u-23 programs.
In an invited comment with Stabroek Sports, Urling declared: “The contract with Mark Rodrigues is for the Olympic Qualifiers. At our press conference it was stated that the Head-Coach and the players are participating in the programme pro bono (no fee)”.
Asked how much money has been invested into the Olympic Qualifiers, Urling further said “Once the qualifiers are over and we have the final figures, we would be in a better position to pronounce on the cost to participate in the qualifiers”.
Under the guidance of Rodrigues and his assistant coach Clement Browne, the team will commence their CFU Olympic Qualifiers on August 21st. The squad which will be led by Ashley Rodrigues, will consist of one locally based player Ruth George.
The other members of the squad are Kayla De Souza, Briana De Souza, Ashlee Savona, Calaigh Copeland, Otesha Charles, Mariam El-Masri, Olivia Gonsalves, Alison Heydorn, Kailey Leila, Chantal Lynch, Kelly Pelz-Butler, Brittany Persaud, Leah-Marie Ramalho, Justine Rodrigues, Martyne Alphonso, Derienne Busby and Chante Sandiford.
Guyana is currently placed in group four which will be hosted in the Dominican Republic alongside the likes St. Kitts and Nevis and Cuba. They will begin their tourney on August 21st against St. Kitts and Nevis before facing off against Cuba in their final match to days onward.
The Lady Jaguars rose to prominence in 2010 after becoming the first national team from Guyana to feature in a CONCACAF tourney which was the Gold Cup held in Mexico.
Group one of the qualifiers will be staged in Puerto Rico and fields the hosts, Aruba, Haiti and Grenada while Group two will consist of host Trinidad and Tobago St. Lucia, Antigua & Barbuda and the Cayman Islands.
On the other hand, group three will be contested in Suriname and will feature the likes of the Dominican Republic, Dominica and Jamaica.
Unlike the u-23 age limit of the male version for individuals born on or after January 1st 1993, the women’s event does not has such a stipulation. The top three teams from the CFU Qualifiers will progress to the CONCACAF Women’s Summer Olympic Tournament in 2016.
