THE Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) yesterday announced the venues for the 2019-2020 edition of the CONCACAF Nations League which revealed that Guyana will journey to Curacao to face Aruba at the Stadion Ergilio Hato in their first League B, Group C match. Kickoff time is 19.00 hrs.

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

Following their September 6 encounter, Guyana will return home to host Jamaica on September 9 from 7:00pm at the National Track and Field Centre.

The Golden Jaguars will then travel to Antigua and Barbuda where they will roar at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on October 11 to finish off the first leg of the home-and-away formatted league.

Guyana 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.

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.

It was already noted by president of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Wayne Forde, in an article published in Chronicle Sport on July 29, that fans might not see the Golden Jaguars suiting up before their first game against Aruba on September 6.

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 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.