JAMAICA’S football contingent left the island yesterday to participate in the inaugural staging of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Futsal Tournament to be held from January 22 to 27 in Havana, Cuba.

Other teams competing are Trinidad and Tobago, Guadeloupe, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Martin, Guyana, Curacao and hosts Cuba.

Group One comprises Trinidad and Tobago, Curacao, Antigua and Barbuda and Guyana, while Group Two consists of Jamaica, Cuba, Guadeloupe and Saint Maarten.

The Jamaicans will face Guadeloupe in their opening match tomorrow at 3:00 pm in a Group Two encounter, while Trinidad and Tobago go up against Antigua and Barbuda in Group One action at 4:30 pm.

In other games, Curacao will take on Guyana at 6:30 pm, and Cuba will battle St Maarten at 8:00 pm.

After the completion of the preliminary round, the top-two teams will qualify for the semi-finals and the top-three teams will then qualify for the CONCACAF Futsal Championship which is played every four years.

Head coach of Jamaica Theodore ‘Tappa’ Whitmore said he was not satisfied with the pool of players and limited preparation time. He noted that Jamaica did not have enough time to select their best players as “we had to submit quickly the names of our players to CONCACAF in a short time”.

“We have to work with the players we have as it is not really the best quality players presently. We have to work with what we have selected, and due to the monetary constraints, we would have liked to carry more players rather than the nine chosen from training,” Whitmore said.

Whitmore said the Jamaican team played only two practice matches inside the National Indoor Sports Centre this week against Medley Mix, and won both matches by identical 6-5 margins.

The former senior national head coach said it is the first time Jamaica will be participating in Futsal at this high competitive level, and he lamented that Jamaica are behind some of the countries participating in the upcoming tournament.

“I would like the players also to get accustomed to this type of football, which is a five-a-side tournament consisting of a goalkeeper and four out-field players as it is a first for Jamaica in the competition.

“However, this is a start, but we don’t have the right facilities to train as other Caribbean countries (as) our players had to train on hard concrete surface as the tournament will be played on board flooring,” said Whitmore, the Jamaican hero of the France 1998 World Cup.

The Jamaica squad is made up of Anthony Marks, Edsel Scott, Ramone Sibley, David Swaby, Shavar Blake, Marvin Morgan, Michily Waul, Kemeel Wolfe and Jerome Haughton.

The Jamaica contingent is completed by Howard Bell (manager), Whitmore (coach) Fabian Taylor (assistant coach) and Ivor O’Connor (doctor).

— Gerald Reid