THE Golden Jaguars, Guyana’s senior Men’s National football team, will kick off their CONCACAF Nations League campaign on September 6 when they travel to ‘The Kingdom of The Netherlands’ territory of Aruba; however, it seems unlikely that Michael Johnson’s men will have a warm-up game before the start of their crusade.

By virtue of finishing seventh in the qualifying stages of the competition, Guyana were pitted in League B alongside Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba and Jamaica in Group C.

Following their September 6 encounter, Guyana will return home to host Jamaica on September 9, followed by a trip to Antigua and Barbuda on October 11 to finish off the first leg of the home-and-away formatted league.

Guyana will host Antigua and Barbuda on October 15, Aruba on November 15 and will travel to Jamaica on November 18 for their second clash with the ‘Reggae Boyz’.

The home-and-away group stage of the 2019 CONCACAF Nations League will be played on FIFA match dates in September, October and November 2019, while the Final Championship will take place in 2020.

However, speaking exclusively with Chronicle Sport yesterday, president of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), Wayne Forde, said the high demands by the confederation has brought about a financial burden that’s not only being experienced by Guyana, but all the member associations in the Caribbean Football Union (CFU).

Forde, before diving into the Nations League, pointed out that his Federation “regrets the lost opportunity of International exposure, especially our youths,” referencing to unfortunate decision to withdraw Guyana from participating in the U-23 Concacaf Men’s Olympic Qualifiers Group A matches in Jamaica.

According to the GFF boss, Guyana will have to find a good balance between domestic and International exposure.

Specifically to the Nations League and Guyana’s preparation, Forde reasoned that participation in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, more so the lead-up to the Golden Jaguars’ historic showing at the tournament, has left the GFF in a ‘tight spot’ financially.

With the entire coaching staff and the majority of the players coming from overseas, Forde said the travel cost for each of their six matches this year will run the GFF between $6M – $8M, adding “…and we do not have a solution to those travel demands.”

Instead, the GFF will depend on the fact that the overseas-based players will be back in playing mode since their respective seasons would’ve recommenced, and locally, the players based in Guyana will benefit from a tournament which the Federation will be rolling out shortly. 

“We (the GFF) understand the importance of honouring our obligation to all the national programmes under our care, but in this case (the Senior Men’s team) likely we will not be able to do that (provide an international friendly),” said Forde.

With CONCACAF also conducting the draw for the women’s Olympic Qualifier tournament, Forde and his Executive Committee will now be forced to add another national programme to the list of those already competing this year, more so that of the senior women’s team, the GFF’s most successful product over the last decade.

The Lady Jags has so far featured in two major CONCACAF tournament (2010 Gold Cup and 2016 Olympic Qualifier) and Forde said with all the tournaments falling one behind the other, “those are challenges that we must confront…(but)…what’s important is that we have an obligation to all of our national teams.”

At the conclusion of the round-robin group stage, the winners of each League A group will qualify to the Final Championship, while the League B and C group winners will be promoted to League A and B for the next edition of the competition.

Additionally, the teams at the bottom of each League A and B group will be relegated to League B and C respectively.