BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE General Secretary of the St. Kitts and Nevis Football Association (SKNFA), Stanley Jacobs said that the Federation’s male football team (Sugar Boyz) would be having a very active schedule in 2014.
This comes on the heel of the national team’s inactiveness during 2013, which saw them slip a further two spots to 149 in the final FIFA Ranking for 2013 announced in early December.
Speaking with SKNVibes Sports, Jacobs revealed that the inactiveness was due largely to the early exit by the recent World Cup Qualifiers and the heavy burn it puts on resources from a small nation like St. Kitts and Nevis to have frequent friendly internationals.
“That happens when there is an off-season like when we participated in the World Cup Qualifiers, get knocked out and then there is not much activity for the national team. To be continually engaged in competitions and international friendlies would take a considerable amount of resources, and the country doesn’t have the resources to enter the team to play international friendlies.”
Jacobs declared that the association would focus its limited resources where they are direly needed, adding that “almost every country that have not been participating or have been out of the World Cup have been relatively inactive.
“Of course, the major countries with the resources are the ones that continue to play and the countries that are going on to Brazil are the ones who are involved in the international friendlies’.
He explained that like all other countries around the world, St. Kitts and Nevis is pretty much in the same boat, as they all remain inactive until the next World Cup qualifying campaign returns.
This year, however, the Sugar Boyz will be very active on the field of play as they will be preparing to play in two major regional competitions.
One of those competitions is the Caribbean Football Union Premier Tournament, the Caribbean Cup.
“Twenty fourteen for the national team would be active, as it would see the revival of the Leeward Islands Tournament which is scheduled to come off around March, possible in St. Maarten. The Leeward Island head is still working out the details. So we have that, and also later down in the year we have the Caribbean Cup and the national team is expected to be engaged throughout the year with those two,” Jacobs said.
He posited that the SKN outfit could be one of the top four teams to qualify for the 2015 Gold Cup in the United States.
