BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE qualifying draw for the Confederation of North Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) Fustal Tournament has pitted team St. Kitts and Nevis against the Dominican Republic in the early rounds of the competition, as the lower ranked teams fight to enter.
The competition is scheduled for May 1-10 in Guatemala City, Guatemala, at the Domo Polideportivo and Teodoro Palacios Flores Gymnasium.
According to the governing body for the sport in the Zone, the 10-day competition would be played in two stages, beginning with a Qualifying Stage and followed by a Championship Stage; those are the group and knockout stages.
In the qualifying leg, there will be four matchups of eight of the lower ranked nations as of February in which St. Kitts and Nevis is featured.
The four winners from the May 1 and 2 games will then progress to the group stages where they will be drawn with the 12 top ranked teams in the CONCACAF region.
The round-robin group stage will be played from May 4-6, followed by the quarterfinals on May 8, the semifinals on May 9 and the third place and final match on Sunday, May 10.
Matchups for the qualifying round are:
Matchup 1: St. Maarten vs Martinique
Matchup 2: Suriname vs French Guiana
Matchup 3: St. Kitts and Nevis vs Dominican Republic
Matchup 4: Nicaragua vs Puerto Rico
The governing body indicated that the draw for the group stages of the competition would be held on Thursday, February 20 at the CONCACAF Headquarters.
Fustal is football played on a hard indoor surface smaller than a football field, such as a basketball court. Each team fields five players on the pitch at a time, including the goalkeeper.
