The Jamaica Star :: Sport :: Warner expects fireworks at Caribbean Championships

Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

FIFA vice-president Warner - file

Curaçao

WITH THE gulf between the Caribbean's elite teams and the minnows diminishing, FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has labelled the upcoming Digicel Caribbean Championships as having the potential to be one of the best the region has seen.

Competitive games

"Every game these days is very competitive. Smaller teams put up a good fight and this will happen more and more because the so-called football minnows don't exist anymore," Warner said at the launch of the rebranded Digicel Caribbean Championships at the Mariott hotel in Curaçao yesterday.

"One can't take anything for granted anymore and that makes for one of the most exciting competitions in years," he added.

"The bar has been lifted in the region generally, to a point that even big European or other foreign teams coming here expecting to win by 8-0, 10-0 margins just doesn't happen anymore," he said.

The region's best teams have certainly had their fair share of troubles as it relates to being bitten by the upset bug.

Shock defeat

Within the last couple of months, 1998 World Cup qualifiers Jamaica were handed a shock 2-1 defeat by lowly ranked Grenada, while 2006 qualifiers Trinidad and Tobago had to stage a late recovery after being stunned at home 2-1 in World Cup qualifying action by Bermuda. In last year's competition, the Jamaicans, then the defending champions, were eliminated after losing to St Vincent and the Grenadines. This year's competition will see both Jamaica, by being virtue of the host nation, and defending champions Haiti, not take part in the competition until the final round of games.

Trinidad and Tobago, along with Cuba, have been given a bly into the second round based on past history and current FIFA rankings.

According to Warner, a major factor in the rise of the standard of the game in the region has not only to do with improved coaching quality and an increased passion for the game in the Caribbean, but also key corporate support.

"The improved standard that we have seen is not just as a result of better coaching and training, but particularly sponsorship of the quality of Digicel's," he noted.

Warner, also the president of CONCACAF and the Caribbean Football Union, pointed to the recently held Digicel Kick Start Clinic as an example of corporate investment in sport used to improve the game at the regional level.

The clinic was coached by former England and Liverpool legend, John Barnes, and provided the opportunity for several youngsters to display their skills at English Premier League club Sunderland.