Busy year for football says Bennett

The extended period of inactivity of national football teams could soon be over as a packed agenda is lined up in the upcoming months for the different outfits.

And, according to General Secretary of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation (SVGFF), Earl Bennett, his organisation will be placing emphasis on the developmental aspect. {{more}}

“It will all be on development as we look towards 2010 world cup qualification,” Bennett pointed out.

He disclosed that this country will have a busy year on its regional undertaking and every effort will be made to maximise the offerings to expose as much talent as possible.

Bennett said that Technical Director of the SVGFF, Zoran Vranes would be critical in the process in choosing the competitions in which this country will participate.

This comes against the backdrop of the disabled state of the SVGFF’ s finance.

But while the federation sorts out its financial status , the male Under-21 footballers have the CFU qualifying component to the 2006 Caribbean and Central American Games (CFU) in Cartegna, Colombia, July 15 -24.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines are drawn in Group 4 to be hosted in Cuba, April 12 – 16. SVG play Antigua/ Barbuda on April 12, and face the formidable host on the 16. Cuba and Antigua/Barbuda face each other on the 14.

SVG will be seeking one of the five CFU places allocated for the CAC final round.

The other groups show Aruba, Puerto Rico, and host Barbados placed in Group 1. Trinidad and Tobago will host Group 2, and have Dominica and Haiti as their opponents.

Group 3 consists of St.Lucia, the United States Virgin Island, hosted by the Netherlands Antilles.

Group 5, hosted in Suriname, also includes Dominican Republic and Jamaica.

Apart from the five CFU qualifiers, the finals will see four teams coming from the UNCAF grouping, Mexico, Venezuela and host Colombia.

In waiting and training is the senior female squad. They are awaiting their itinerary for the world cup qualifiers.

This country’s Under 17’s head for Trinidad and Tobago in August for the CONCACAF Zone for qualification to the 2007 World Cup finals.

A recruitment exercise is currently underway as the local body seeks to get the best available players to the high level.

Last year the Under-15 team was involved in the precursor to the Under-17 qualifiers in the form of the CFU invitational.

The nation awaits the re-activation of the flagship team, the branded Vincy Heat. The senior outfit has an appointment during the latter part of the year in the Digicel Caribbean Cup.

This competition is eagerly anticipated as SVG tries to get its rankings on FIFA’ s standings back to a point of respectability. It was more than one year ago that Vincy Heat last took the field in a competitive international. That was when they beat Trinidad and Tobago1-0 here at Arnos Vale in the return leg of the Digicel semi-finals.

The ensuing senior competition will also be used to blood new players as the SVGFF keeps in focus its thrust towards making a 2010 world cup final qualification a reality.