THE BARBADOS CUP doesn’t have a clash over use of the National Stadium. Not anymore at least.
Both the conflicting CARIFTA trials and the Barbados Football Association’s (BFA) knockout games have been rescheduled, leaving the Barbados Cup’s opening ceremony as the only event slated for this Sunday t the Waterford venue.
The original scheduling controversy came to light two days ago when Barbados Cup director George Lascaris said he was informed by the manager of the National Stadium that there were two other conflicting events scheduled for the same day.
This coming even though Lascaris had already financially secured use of the Waterford venue four months ago after paying a fee of $690.
However, the Amateur Athletic Association of Barbados was also granted use of the National Stadium to conduct its CARIFTA trials from 3 p.m. while the BFA had scheduled two knockout games later that evening.
But the trials have subsequently been pushed forward by a day to start tomorrow and finish on Saturday.
Since then, BFA general secretary David Hinds met with Lascaris yesterday to inform him that the BFA no longer intended to hold knockout matches at the Stadium on Sunday.
“We did sanction his tournament in good faith and we will try our best to work out something amicably,” said Hinds in an interview with NATIONSPORT before the meeting.
It’s the third time in as many years the Barbados Cup’s opening ceremony has been slated for the National Stadium on the same day the BFA was holding an event there.
Last year, the opening Caribbean Qualifying Zone match of the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup between Barbados and Anguilla was scheduled to play on the same Sunday of the Barbados Cup opener.
The situation was resolved following the intervention of National Sports Council director Erskine King, as the Gold Cup match came directly after the staging of the Barbados Cup opening ceremony.
