The Golden Jaguars will now play The Bahamas in the Dominican Republic Guyana Football Federation (GFF) boss Wayne Forde has confirmed.
It means that the Golden Jaguars opening two fixtures in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers will be played in the Dominican Republic (DR) following the decision to stage the Trinidad/ Golden Jaguars opening fixture there.
Yesterday, at a press conference at the National Training Centre, GFF president Wayne Forde said: “I would like to announce that both fixtures in the upcoming window will be played in the Dominican Republic. The decision by the TTFA to move our match to the DR has contributed to our decision to transfer the match against the Bahamas to that jurisdiction, as it makes more sense from a logistical and financial standpoint.”
Guyana will open its Group-F campaign against Trinidad’s Soca Warriors on March 25th.
They will then oppose The Bahamians five days later. In their third match, Guyana will travel to St. Kitts and Nevis for their match on June 4th before ending their group round at home on June 8th against Puerto Rico.
Only the group winner will progress to the second stage of the qualifiers
“We are also somewhat hamstrung by the UK’s decision to place Guyana on its Covid-19 red list of banned countries. This decision means that clubs would not be able or willing to release players for travel to Guyana. We are grateful to the Dominican Republic Football Association for accommodating us and we have the full cooperation of The Bahamas Football Association, Concacaf and FIFA in this matter,” Forde added.
He indicated that relocating the match to the Spanish speaking nation incurs added financial costs.
“It is obviously disappointing not to be able to host a home match this time around, but we are hopeful that conditions will allow this in the next window in June. Travelling to the DR does come at an additional cost, with the overall operating costs for this window coming in at GYD$27 million plus a further US$10,000 fee payable to the DRFA for hosting the game against The Bahamas. Because of the date’s involved and ongoing travel challenges, we have had to charter a flight to and from the DR at a cost of GYD$12 million [which is included in the operational cost]. The squad will leave on March 17th and return on March 31st. We are confident that the DR will provide a professional and safe environment alongside Concacaf’s strict match day testing schedule. The games will be played without spectators,” said Forde.
He said that the decision in not announcing the final squad before the team departs is rooted in ensuring that all possible players inclusive of the international based cadre are available for selection, as several confirmations are yet to be attained by the federation.
“The final squad will be announced on March 17th, on the same day that the team and staff will depart for the Dominican Republic”, said Forde.
“Training has been progressing well, with the squad showing the professional commitment, discipline and passion that we expect at this level. We are investing GYD$3.3 million dollars monthly to cover the cost of the domestic training programme. This includes travel, meals, medical, equipment and staffing,” he disclosed. According to Forde, the expectation is to emerge victorious in the opening fixture, with the only other option being a drawn encounter. He added that the team possesses the required expertise and quality to garner the expected results against both opposition.
“It goes without saying that these two matches are of vital importance if Guyana is to progress beyond Group-F to the second round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualification process. The GFF is investing heavily into this window, both in terms of training and operation costs for the matches and we believe we have every chance of progressing to the later stages of the qualification. Our group is clearly very competitive but it is also winnable.
We all know that the first game against Trinidad and Tobago will be the crunch tie. Getting this campaign off to a good start is crucial; these matches will set the tone for the rest of the year, not just for our World Cup journey but also for the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup.”
Meanwhile, Marcio Maximo, head-coach of the Golden Jaguars outfit, stated that the program has two objectives which are to be competitive at international events and provide the necessary platform for local player development.
He noted that the commitment and desire is present amongst the locally based contingent as well as the foreign born cadre.
“If the locally based players can repeat what is taught in the training along with the desire of the international players, the team can do very well in the qualifiers,” said Maximo.
Ian Greenwood, Technical Director of the GFF, revealed that the performance indicators and objectives for the national team are to advance to the second round of the competition as well as to better their performances from the 2019 Gold Cup.
