BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE St. Kitts-Nevis Football Association (SKNFA) is moving full steam ahead with its plans for the staging of one group of the CFU Female U20 World Cup Qualifiers.
Slated for November 22-26, the group will see St. Kitts and Nevis locking horns with Jamaica, Dominican Republic and Haiti – with only the group’s winner progressing to the CONCACAF finals.
General Secretary of the SKNFA, Stanley Jacobs told SKNVibes Sport today (Nov. 6) that the body is pleased to be staging the matches in the Federation.
According to Jacobs, this is a learning curve for the association because it allows them the opportunity to further enhance their women’s programme, which is still in the “infancy stage”.
Further, he disclosed that the games provide an opportunity for the association to allow the young girls to play against opponents of very high standards.
“It is an opportunity for us to measure ourselves as to how far our women’s programme has come over the short period since it has been in existence. So, our mantra is always to play hard and to come out on top.”
The General Secretary revealed that the next step from this tournament is in 2018 when the senior women would be in action.
Several players who will be on show during this U-20 tournament will also be featuring in the senior women’s line-up.
“That is really why we are using this tournament as a spring board to launch a number of the young girls who will play a key role in the senior team. So, like I would have said, it is a continuum since a lot of the girls would be in this tournament would be featured later on.”
He said that thus far plans for the U-20 tournament have been progressing smoothly and are now in the phase of creating awareness locally for the event.
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“Persons can expect to hear much more over the coming days in relation to our promotional efforts for the tournament.”
All matches will be played at the Warner Park Football Stadium, with games beginning at 5:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. nightly – all days (22, 24 and 26) will feature double header matches.
The group winners will progress to the January 2018 final round in Trinidad and Tobago, where the top three from that tournament will qualify for the World Cup in France.
