Us Virgin Islands friendly been cancelled ?
not on fifa.com fixtures anymore !
Why could this friendly be cancelled ?
1. US Virgin Islands cancelled trip to US after Chicago Inferno cancelled their first friendly scheduled for today.
2. PFF and US Virgin Isl has not informed US Soccer Federation in time about the friendly
US Virgin Islands confirmed in a email to me now that the friendly has been cancelled. Did not tell about what reason for the cancellation.
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That would be terrible....Considering a lot more azkals fans in the states (from what I've been told), were planning to attend the US Virgin Island game.
ReplyDeleteI hope the Azkal brass has a fill-in team as a replacement.
It is possible that they did not ask the permission of the USSF to arrange an international friendly here in the US. The USSF in the past usually considers that as poaching. Playing with club teams is one thing but to arrange a FIFA mandated international friendly, they probably needed to communicate with the USSF first. They probably could arrange to have a game against a club or an NCAA div 1 team instead.
ReplyDeleteMeh. Yes, it's possible that the USSF were not informed and all that but surely you can't really buy into that, I certainly don't. I mean, this trip along with friendlies against the USVI and even Belize has been in the works since May at least! Surely the PFF and/or the USVI would've said something to the USSF about this! I think this has more to do (or everything even) about the USVI not being able to make it to the States. Hell, their game against the Inferno didn't take place, that should say something about their availability against the Philippines.
ReplyDeleteThat is also a possibility. Most of the USVI players are semi pros or amateurs who have jobs of their own. However considering the lead time they had to prepare for this game, I don't think that is the reason. Maybe they were disappointed in not being able to play the Inferno as they had requested.
ReplyDeleteAs for the USSF stepping in. This is not the first time this has happened in the US. South American and Central American countries were making a killing decades ago arranging friendlies here between their teams. The USSF finally stepped in and complained to FIFA of this enroachment and FIFA has mandated that you need to request permission from the local FA if you want to hold FIFA sanctioned games in their territory. This is not usually enforced in other countries unless the local FA complains and the USSF is very strict in following the rules of FIFA. They have their own legal division with their federation that takes care of such matters.
Since this is not the first time the PFF has ever done anything like this abroad, they might not have been aware of this rule. In fact they have had to be reminded of several rules in the FIFA book in the past which they were unaware of.
Apparently acc. to the interaksyon article, the USVI were looking for a free ride and when they didn't get it, did not get into the plane. They should have clarified this early on and not deal it with it at the last minute.
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