Cayman Islands Football Association reports widespread progress/Jamaica advance CONCACAF World Cup
From Cayman Football
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands – The Cayman Islands Football Association (CIFA) presented an encouraging progress report to the local clubs at the annual Congress at the Westin Resort, recently.
In his address, CIFA President Jeffrey Webb highlighted positive improvements in the association’s financial statements, infrastructure upgrading, hosting of international competitions and player development.
“CIFA has made significant progress in the past twelve months, both on and off the field of play,” Webb said. “We have created several opportunities for our players and officials at every level and we continue to see the benefits from these investments.”
In the past year the Cayman Islands has hosted the inaugural CONCACAF Boys’ U-15 (August 2013), Girls’ U-15 (August 2014) and the CONCACAF Womens’ U-20 Championships (January 2014).
“The investments in facilities development by the government has helped CIFA in bidding and successfully hosting CONCACAF competitions,” Webb affirmed.
“The Championships have provided us the opportunity to engage new sponsors, solidify our long term relationships with Maples and Calder, DART and Foster’s and expand our revenue streams. As a result CIFA has rebounded from difficult financial times.”
“We must remain on this upward trend.”
The clubs are the immediate beneficiaries from CIFA’s improving financial stature. CIFA has increased the prize money for the premier league by 30 percent and provided an additional bonus to clubs in good standing with the association.
Reigning Men’s Premier League winners Bodden Town FC received the winner’s cheque of seven thousand five hundred ($7,500) dollars. In 2015, the Premiership winners will receive ten thousand ($10,000) dollars.
With the objective of improving club participation and performance CIFA will also implement the CONCACAF Club Licensing program in the next twelve months with an aim of bringing local clubs in line with best practices regionally.
The Club Licensing programme helps clubs improve their administrative structure and processes which CIFA hopes will impact the quality of play on the field.
In the past year CIFA has engineered a focus on youth player development through the Grassroots Programme. Programme Director Darrel Rankine reported that over 550 children registered in the programme in the last term February to June.
Legal firm Maples and Calder sponsors programme, which targets 6-12 year olds and is centered on creating fun and engaging exercises that will encourage greater participation while introducing fundamental technical skills.
“We have made great strides this year, with a steady growth in numbers, Rankine said.
The programme’s growth can be hampered if more qualified and interested coaches don’t become involved.
“We need more young players and coaches interested to usher this next generation of football players into the future. Without good coaching we will not develop good players on the pitch and solid citizens off it.”
The new initiatives reported on at the congress are all part of CIFA’s overall strategic plan.
After months of consultation with stakeholders and the inclusion of recommendations from a task force that reviewed all leagues and competitions; the official strategic plan document was presented to the Congress by Mark Scotland, CIFA’s Youth Development Director.
The main objective of the strategic plan is to provide a road map for the sport’s development at all levels in the Cayman Islands.
IMAGE: CIFA
Related story
Four Caribbean nations round out CONCACAF World Cup qualifying field
By Tim Grainey From The Equalizer
Four teams will advance from the Caribbean Cup to final CONCACAF qualification for the Women’s World Cup.
Jamaica, Haiti, Martinique and host Trinidad & Tobago have advanced from the Caribbean Cup to the final CONCACAF qualification for the Women’s World Cup.
After two matches in both groups of the Caribbean Women’s Cup being held in Trinidad and Tobago, the four teams moving onto CONCACAF’s Women’s Gold Cup in October are now determined: Jamaica, Haiti, Martinique and host T&T.
Two teams have American coaches in Shek Borkowski of Haiti and Randy Waldrum of Trinidad & Tobago. Two teams are from French-speaking islands—Haiti and Martinique—while Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago have strong British roots. Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and Haiti all trained in the U.S. before the tournament, a decided advantage over teams like Bermuda and St. Kitts and Nevis, who didn’t have the resources for such a camp.
The one anomaly is the French territory of Martinique, who although are members of the Caribbean Football Union and CONCACAF, cannot qualify for next summer’s Women’s World Cup in Canada as they are not members of FIFA. So seven nations will fight this fall for three automatic berths and one play-in spot versus the third place side in CONMEBOL: the host United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago.
In Group A, Haiti defeated Bermuda 5-1 and Puerto Rico 4-0 in their first two games. Marie Yves Dina Jean Pierre scored once in each game for Haiti while U.S.-based Lindsay Zullo (ex-Flagler College) and Samantha Brand (ex-University of San Francisco and played professionally in Iceland and Sweden) each scored one each.
Jamaica bested Puerto Rico 4-1 and Bermuda 9-1 with Shakira Duncan, who played at the University of West Florida and in Iceland, scoring six times in two games. Donna-Kay Henry (who played at University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and for the Western New York Flash in WPSL-Elite in 2012 as well as in Switzerland) scored twice in the tournament.
In Group B, hosts Trinidad & Tobago defeated St. Kitts and Nevis (10-0) and Antigua & Barbuda (3-0). In their first two games, Tasha St. Louis (who played with FC Indiana and in Sweden) had four goals while Mariah Shade (ex-American International College in Springfield, Mass.) scored three times. Kenya Cordner (who played at Young Harris College in Georgia, briefly with the Seattle Reign last season and with the W-League’s Seattle Sounders Women this season) and Janine Francois (ex-South Carolina State University) scored two goals each.
Martinique beat Antigua & Barbuda (2-0) and St. Kitts and Nevis (1-0). Prisca Carin scored a brace in the first game and Aurelle Rouge scored the lone tally against St. Kitts.
The tournament continues with the last round of group matches this weekend while the two group winners play for the Cup title on Tuesday and the two group runners-up play in the consolation match for third/fourth. Trinidad & Tobago has a plus-10 goal differential over Martinique ahead of their game on Sunday and can advance to the final with a tie. Jamaica has a plus-3 goal difference over Haiti, so Haiti must win Saturday to advance to the tournament final.
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