Jamaica to host CFU women's Group E qualifying round

The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) will host Group E of the final stage of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Women's Under-17 qualification round to be held November 27 to December 4.

The participating countries will be Guyana, The Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, and hosts Jamaica.

In the absence of having a host country, the CFU asked Jamaica to host as the alternative format of home and away would prove far more costly for all competing countries, including Jamaica, a release from the JFF yesterday. The final agreement between the CFU and JFF was arrived at on Tuesday.

The hosting of the tournament will, in the view of the JFF, further strengthen the renewed interest in women's football, which was ignited with the recently staged FIFA Women's Development Seminar held in September, and the just-concluded Sherwin Williams Women's League.

Since the staging of the FIFA seminar, the JFF has discussed and submitted to FIFA a detailed plan for the development of the sport which has an emphasis on grassroots involvement of girls, as well as developing the sport at the under-15 age level, the release said.

The qualifiers will begin on November 29 with a double-header, Guyana vs Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica vs Bahamas. The three top teams at the end of the tournament will advance to the eight-team CONCACAF stage of the qualifiers to be held next year.

The JFF has convened a Local Organising Committee which had its first meeting yesterday.

The JFF has appealed to corporate Jamaica for help in making the tournament a success, and has called for volunteer support.