With the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers set to commence later this year, the local governing body, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) is targeting the possibility of competing in international friendlies before the start of the official March international qualifiers.
This was disclosed during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport. According to Keeran Williams, Communications Officer of the Federation, discussions have occurred on the status of possibility staging international fixtures ahead of the world cup qualifiers. He further said that the current COVID-19 situation impacts the ability of the association to stage international fixtures.
Williams elaborated, “Of course we have had some very promising discussions on staging international friendlies, we have been aggressively communicating and discussing this possibility of competing in friendlies but the current situation with COVID-19 makes that gloomy even with our closest of allies such as Suriname. We are preparing for the March window per normal until otherwise.”
He added, “The Bounce Back plan also has the possibility of international friendlies. Ideally we would want to have friendlies and have the players competing in a competitive space before going into an important tournament. At the moment it is not possible to state the name of the countries we would have had discussions with but discussions have been held with several.”
The Golden Jaguars have not competed on the international circuit for more than 426 days, with their previous encounter occurring against Aruba on November 15th 2019.
The Guyanese were drawn in group-F in the first stage of the Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers, a pool which contains traditional rival Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts and Nevis, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. Guyana will open their campaign away to Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday March 25th, before hosting the Bahamas on March 30th.
In their third match, Guyana will travel to St. Kitts and Nevis for Friday June 4th before ending their group round at home on Tuesday June 8th against Puerto Rico. Upon the conclusion of the first round, the second stage will consist of the respective group winners facing off in a home and away series during the latter stages of June. Winner of group-A will oppose group-F, whilst group-B battles group-E and group-C engages ground-D.
The eventual victors will advance to the final round in September which will consist of eight teams. Following 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. Guyana’s best showing in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers occurred in the 2014 edition, as they romped to the third stage of qualifying. This is the penultimate section of the confederation’s qualification process.
