BARBADOS’ footballers will no longer have “home advantage” in their bid to qualify the Digicel Caribbean Cup finals.
The Caribbean Football Union (CFU) has bypassed Barbados and installed St Vincent and the Grenadines as the new hosts of Group B of the upcoming Digicel Caribbean Cup Championships.
The group was originally scheduled to be held at the National Stadium early next month as part of the Barbados Football Association’s (BFA) centenary celebrations.
But the CFU last week announced that St Vincent would be the new hosts for the October 6 to 10 preliminary group matches to be contested at Victoria Park in Kingstown.
However, a source close to the BFA said the association was reluctant in going ahead with plans to stage the group as it would cost over $200 000 to take care of hotel accommodation, meals, security and transport for a minimum of 110 players and officials.
“The BFA felt that they couldn’t host unless they received financial help and this was not forthcoming,” the source told NATIONSPORT.
Whereas the host country will be responsible for meals, accommodation and domestic transport for up to 25 people per delegation, visiting teams will be responsible for their flights in and out of the host territory and airport taxes.
Meanwhile, the Barbados squad, under the supervision of head coach Thomas Jordan who recently returned home from a coaching stint in Hungary, have been hard at training at the Emmerton Playing Field, St Michael, in preparation for the tournament.
Barbados will play St Kitts and Nevis on October 6, followed by an encounter against Montserrat on October 8, with the final game two days later against St Vincent and the Grenadines.
In a memo to the participating countries, CFU’s general secretary Angenie Kanhai advised the visiting teams that they should arrive in St Vincent no earlier than October 4.
