Visa and financial issues have put in doubt the participation of two national youth teams in upcoming CONCACAF competitions in the United States and the Dominican Republic.
In a release yesterday, the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) said it was “facing the possibility of taking the very tough decision of withdrawing from the upcoming CONCACAF Girls Under-15 Championship in Tampa, Florida, and the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Boys Under-14 Challenge Series in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.”
The TTFA said the challenges of securing the necessary travel visas to the United States along with financial constraints for air travel to the United States and Dominican Republic, had brought T&T’s participation in the tournaments into doubt.
The release stated: “Tampa, Florida, was confirmed as the venue for the Girls Under-15 Championship on June 6, 2022, and despite our best efforts to communicate with all relevant stakeholders, even prior to that date, we have been unsuccessful in obtaining US travel visa appointments for 20 players and staff, while being cognizant of the well-documented backlog of applications for US travel visa matters, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The TTFA said it had also been seeking assistance from the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago to obtain the necessary funding for air travel to the two tournaments. “We have acted in good faith and proceeded with the preparations for the respective tournaments through our High Performance Programme for the respective age-groups over the past few months,” the release further stated.
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