The CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship is the main championship for beach soccer in North America, Central America and the Caribbean, contested between senior men’s national teams of the members of CONCACAF. For those Guyanese in the football fraternity who lunge at the opportunity to support their nation at any level, may find it shocking to learn that Guyana has been a part of this Regional tournament. It began in 2006 with just five nations and has since been a biennial tournament open to 19 countries who compete for two spots at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. It is the sport’s version of the better known CONCACAF Gold Cup in association football. Since its inception, the event has grown densely in popularity around the CONCACAF region and has seen Mexico assert themselves as the most successful nation with four titles, one of which is the current title. The United States are the other multiple title winners with two. Along with El Salvador and Costa Rica, this quartet have dominated the championship, with at least three finishing in the top four together in seven of the eight tournaments. CONCACAF organises the championship, with cooperation from Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW). This organisation is responsible for the founding and growth of association football’s derivative sport of beach soccer.

Guyana participates

Guyana made its debut in 2013 to compete in the fifth edition of the Championships but records showed that they entered but withdrew. Two years later they did not attend the event. In 2017, the Guyanese side competed in the tournament that featured 17 nations, an attendance record. They were successful enough to make it out of the group stages but ended with a 12^th place finish.Their most recent participation was in Mexico in 2019, where they were eliminated in round one. As it stands, in Guyana’s two appearances they played 9 matches, won 3 and lost six. However, their winning percentage still stands higher than five of the 19 CONCACAF nations that participate. On the World Stage, BSWW ranks Guyana at 68^th of 120 countries.

Guyana’s squad

The Guyana Beach Football Association’s (GBFA) most recent 12-man squad confirmed by CONCACAF included Trevon Archibald, Jeffon Figueira, Jermain Grandison, Jamal Haynes, Cordel Johnson, Deshawn Joseph, Simon Kennard, Shane Luckie, Jashaun Moore, Keon Sears, Ethan Sparman and Michael Wilson. Abdulla Hamid has been the head coach of the National Beach Soccer Team which trains at the Bayrock Beach Soccer Facility in Linden. However, for those not too familiar with the players, some do possess talent that needs nurturing if an advancement in the sport is to be made. In 2017, Jamal Haynes won the Scotiabank Young Player Award at the CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship, which was held in Bahamas. He was instrumental in a win over Antigua and Barbuda with a hat-trick and scored one of the best goals of the tournament with a spectacular overhead kick.

Haynes received praise from the Guyana Football Federation Technical Director Ian Greenwood who told a local media entity, “Jamal’s personal achievement is remarkable, given the limited exposure this squad has had to beach soccer at this level. It shows the strength of individual talent that exists in Guyana, which we are now working to harness and develop more effectively. Jamal and the team have improved steadily throughout their preparations and the tournament, and we have a promising platform to build on for the future.” However, there has been no advancement since then for an almost dormant association that struggles for recognition of higher skills that can be transferable to this terrain. There has not even been much of a change in team members. Chronicle Sport tried to make contact with a few members of the association, however, that proved futile since the association is so much under the radar, it is under who hold what post. 

Squad selection

Upon further research, it was found that these players who have been training together for some time in Linden hail from the Mining Town, the Linden Highway and along the upper regions of the East Bank of Demerara. The selection process was not a rigorous one but a rather relaxed one that took the best from players who showed their interest to play. This shows that association lacks a lot of structure to take this sport to the next level. Hence, Guyana has not been putting their best foot forward on the International Stage. It has been proven that with the appropriate facilities in place along with minor leagues or tournaments involved, higher levels of ­talent arise that can be nurtured to allow a proper representation of a nation. Apart from the Bayrock facility which has a denser amount of sand to the more loose competition level sand, there is no location that promotes beach football of sorts. Apart from what funding may be gathered from governing bodies to assist associations in the advanced of the sport, additional funding is very much needed to get the sport effectively competing on an international stage.