PRESIDENT of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Wayne Forde told Chronicle Sport that Guyana’s opening CONCACAF Nations League qualifier game against Barbados will now be played on Thursday, September 6, at the National Track and Field Centre at Leonora.

The move, Forde told this publication in an exclusive interview, was more than necessary, noting the Guyana Amazon Warriors will be playing the Jamaica Tallawahs on September 8 at the Guyana National Stadium – the original date for the Golden Jaguars/Barbados clash.
“There’s a CPL game on the 8th and even though we would have written and secured the venue, it is unfortunate … we can’t play the two on the same day, I think it would have been difficult with the East Bank traffic and all that. I am hopeful that we will make some specific announcement in a few days,” Forde explained.

Forde also pointed out that Guyana’s preparation for the newly-formed Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Nations League is bearing fruit. While he did not comment on the composition of the team, the GFF boss made it clear that the team, when selected, will be one of the best in the Caribbean.

With matches being played on the FIFA dates between September 2018 and March 2019, Guyana, after their clash with Barbados on September 6, will then travel to Turks and Caicos for a meeting between the two countries on October 13, followed by an encounter against French Guiana on November 20, before hosting Belize in March, 2019.

The Nations League is a new centralised men’s national team competition which represents a new era of national team football for CONCACAF member associations (MA).
The CONCACAF Nations League begins in September with a one-off qualifying phase, while the group phase, consisting of three-tiered leagues, will kick off in 2019.

The top league will end with a final to crown the Nations League champions and the competition will also serve to unify the qualifying path for the region’s national teams to the newly-expanded Gold Cup.

Currently, under new head coach Michael Johnson, the Golden Jaguars are currently in Brazil on a ‘Train and Play’ camp.