Young Boyz 'Hi-Jacked'?

[Sickko]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Young Boyz 'Hi-Jacked'?</SPAN>
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Monday, August 21, 2006
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<P class=StoryText align=justify>Jamaica's chances of retaining their Caribbean Youth Cup (Under-17) suddenly became remote yesterday after an off-the-field intervention of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) late Saturday.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=130 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Boxhill. we have to look at the bigger picture</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>According to a release from the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) yesterday, CFU president Austin 'Jack' Warner, on the advice of senior vice-president Lisle Austin, and with the approval the CFU's emergency committee, revised the format of the competition in order to determine the two Caribbean teams that will go through to the CONCACAF final qualifying round for the FIFA World Under-17 Championship.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The CFU Youth Cup is also being used as qualification for the World Cup.<P class=StoryText align=justify>With the competition now at the quarter-final stage and Jamaica being host of one leg of that CONCACAF qualification competition, the nation has been placed in Group B with the three non-Caribbean (guest teams) group winners - Canada, Mexico and Panama - while the other qualifiers, Barbados, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname have been placed in Group A to participate in a league playoff.<P class=StoryText align=justify>From this playoff, the first and second-placed teams will subsequently qualify for the CONCACAF final round of the competition.
The first-placed teams of each group will play for the Caribbean Youth Championship, while the second-placed teams of each group will play for the third and fourth places.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Mexico are the reigning world champions at the Under-17 level, Canada are CONCACAF powers at the youth level, while Panama represent the traditional Central American quality, leaving the Caribbean champions with a mountain to climb, as opposed to the other Caribbean countries in Group A, which will be given a much easier passage to the final and third place playoff.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Under the original format, the Young Reggae Boyz, winners of Group F after three unbeaten games, were set to challenge preliminary round Group C winners Barbados tomorrow.
But under this new format, they were suddenly asked to travel to Tobago yesterday, to face Canada today in quarter-final action.
JFF boss Crenston Boxhill was not overly amused by this sudden change, but he preferred to put a philosophical spin on it.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"Based on us being the only Caribbean team in this group, of course it makes it more difficult to retain our title as Caribbean champions, but having said that, we have to look at the bigger picture," he said.
"Our aim all along was to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in South Korea in 2007 and to do so these are some of the teams that we will have to come up against and beat in order to be successful.
"Earlier this year we played the USA twice and with these high quality games, it will enhance our chances of the ultimate goal," he added.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The Observer learnt that Raymond Grant, the head of delegation of the David Hunt-coached team, was made aware of the changes early yesterday, after the team's management had scouted Barbados and scheduled an off-day for the players, in anticipation of a game against the land of the flying fish tomorrow.
Jamaica mauled Dominica 8-0 Saturday to complete their first round fixture.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The group winners will meet in the

[Lazie]

RE: Young Boyz 'Hi-Jacked'?

The CFU has always acted in the best interest of T&amp;T. Sorry Triniman, its the truth. I recall Walter Boyd receiving a yellow card for taking off his jersey after scoring a goal in the Shell Cup, it was his second card in the tournament.Normally, that would be a 1 game suspension, however, Jack and CFU banned him from the semis and the final.

The sorry fact is Burrell simply accepted it.

[Mosiah]

RE: Young Boyz 'Hi-Jacked'?

<DIV>And then we have Boxhill, who gets philosophical about this latest travesty. </DIV><DIV></DIV><DIV>I'm not sure how badly Jamaica will be affected by these new changes. (Some reports say that we are already guaranteed a place to the next round which we will host. I wish someone could explain it all to me.) But what is certain is T&amp;T's road to the next round has been virtually assured by these new developments. How can you in the middle of a tournament change the rules for qualification?!? That's absolutely unherad of! But, like Jack's brush with FIFA rules and regulations regarding World Cup tickets, CFU and CONCACAF will pardon him and it's bizniz as usual.</DIV><DIV></DIV><DIV>Time for Jack to go! Karl, hold that nonsense about how much he has done for Caribbean football. Hundreds more would have done the same, only more transparently and less crooked!</DIV>

[Reggae-Fan]

RE: Young Boyz 'Hi-Jacked'?

Mo, Jamaica's place in the next round of the world cup qualifying was already secured liong before the this T&amp;T tournament began. The kids went to T&amp;T to play for the title of Caribbean under-17 champions, and did all hey had to do to set up a semi final show down with Barbados, only to be told at the last minute that instead iof playng Barbados, threy will now have to tackle Canada instead, and the Barbados group will go to the home team, Trinidad. Its highway robbery at best.

[Time]

RE: Young Boyz 'Hi-Jacked'?

This Club needs to send FIFA a fan protest note.