Caribbean Futsal Championship at UWI starts Monday

THE FIRST ever Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Futsal tournament will begin on Monday at the University of the West Indies campus, St Augustine. The CFU Futsal Preliminary event from April 19-23 is sponsored by the Hindu Credit Union (HCU) Group of Companies.  It will advance three nations to the 2004 CONCACAF Final Round qualification scheduled for July in Costa Rica, the CFU announced on Wednesday. Eight nations have been divided into two groups of four for the preliminary round world-qualifying tournament. Group “A” has Grenada, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago, while Group “B” has Guyana, St Vincent, Suriname and Turks and  Caicos Islands.

The top team from each group will advance to the CONCACAF Futsal finals and will also play for the Caribbean title on April 23. The two runners-up from each group will meet for a third-place play-off game to claim the final CFU berth in the tournament in Costa Rica. The three Caribbean representatives will join three qualifiers from the North/Central Prelim-inary Series, along with Cuba and the host Costa Rica, in the eight-team CONCACAF final round.

This event will qualify two CONCACAF nations to the 2004 FIFA Futsal World Championship to be held in Chinese Taipei from November 22 to December 12. Futsal is a sport that is a derivative of football and played with five-man teams on a basketball style court, with no walls and a low bouncing ball. Great Brazilian soccer superstars such as Pele, Zico and Ronaldo grew up playing the game and credit Futsal with developing their skills.

Schedule
Group A: Grenada, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago. Group B: Guyana, St Vincent, Suriname, Turks and Caicos Islands.
Apr 19 — Suriname vs St Vincent; Grenada vs Netherlands Antilles; Guyana vs Turks and Caicos Islands; Trinidad and Tobago vs Puerto Rico.
Apr 20 — Turks and Caicos Islands vs Suriname; Puerto Rico vs Grenada; St Vincent vs Guyana; Netherlands Antilles vs Trinidad and Tobago.
Apr 21 — Turks and Caicos Islands vs St Vincent; Puerto Rico vs Netherlands Antilles; Suriname vs Guyana; Trinidad and Tobago vs Grenada.
Apr 23 — Group B Runner-up vs Group A Runner-up.
Apr 23 — FINAL. (CMC)