TT to host CFU Challenge Series next month

TRINIDAD AND Tobago have been named as one of the hosts for the forthcoming Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Women’s Challenge Series 2018. This is a separate tournament from the CONCACAF Caribbean Women’s World Cup qualification which starts in May.

Twenty teams from the CFU will be in the hunt for top honours in the CFU Women’s Challenge Series. The Series will be played from April 18-29 and will be staged across five venues.

TT will host one group at the TTFA (TT Football Association) Home of Football, Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva. Other groups will be played at Warner Park Sporting Complex in St Kitts; UWI JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence in Jamaica; Stade Sylvia Cator in Haiti and Antigua Recreation Grounds in Antigua.

CFU interim president Randolph Harris said the Challenge Series addresses a dearth of competitive play for women footballers in the Caribbean and is a welcome addition to the calendar.

“This is both exciting and productive for our Member Associations. The respective women’s national teams have been itching to get off the mark for some time, so we are confident that the competition will redound to the benefit of the teams and football fans across the region,” Harris said.

The groups are Group A: St Kitts/Nevis (hosts), St Vincent/Grenadines, St Lucia and Dominica; Group B: Jamaica (hosts), Barbados, Cuba and Turks/Caicos Islands; Group C: Haiti (hosts), Martinique, Dominican Republic and USVI (United States Virgin Islands); Group D: Antigua/Barbuda (hosts), Curacao, Guadeloupe and Montserrat; and Group E: Trinidad and Tobago (hosts), Grenada, Guyana and Suriname. TT will play Suriname on April 25, Grenada on April 28 and Guyana on April 30.

In related news, Panama Women’s team will arrive in Trinidad today, ahead of two international warm-up matches against TT at the Ato Boldon Stadium from 6.30 pm on Thursday and at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella on Saturday from 4 pm.

Both TT and Panama are preparing for forthcoming France 2019 World Cup qualifying action.

Currently, an 18-player TT squad is in training under head coach Jamaal Shabazz and is captained by veteran Tasha St Louis. According to St Louis, “We are very, very excited and hungry for these two games. As a group we have been working very hard over the past few months. The FA has kept us together and now it’s a matter of us going out there and putting in the display in a match situation.” Tickets for each match are priced at $20 and will be available at the respective venues on game day.

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