Barbados in major sports deal with Argentina
By George Alleyne
The footballing link between Barbados
and Argentina has been made stronger with
a signing of an agreement that should see
the two-time World Cup winning South
American nation sharing its expertise with
the island.
Barbados Football Association (BFA)
President, Randy Harris, and Executive
Director of the Argentina Football Association
(AFA), Gerardo Leon, last week signed
on the dotted line for a memorandum of
understanding between the two territories.
This signing opened up Barbados footballers
to Argentine facilities and equipment,
several programmes, training and
football management, sports medicine,
tutoring in anti-doping policies and the allimportant
scholarships in football law and
sports marketing.
This agreement comes after a squad of
Barbadian Under-17 footballers last December
benefitted from an Argentina Football
Association-sponsored educational and
training trip to study the game and practice
with managers of the world-rated Boca
Juniors Football Club the home for Diego
Maradona, Carlos Tevez and many other
internationally known players.
That visit was aimed at boosting the
Bajan lads’ skillset as they pursue dreams of
making it to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Now this bigger deal will see Argentine
assistance spread across the entire Barbados
football landscape touching across the
spectrum from toddlers to seniors.
“We are going to begin the programme
as soon as possible,” said Harris as he
stressed that players in Barbados have a far
way to go and could do so with the type of
assistance coming out of this agreement.
“In order for any team in Barbados to
have an impact, we need to have the support
of everyone. Not only the government
but FIFA, CONCACAF and the CFU supports
its own and you can see the results
of what that support brings to Barbados,”
he said.
“We have quality players in Barbados.
What we have to do is to have a quality programme
to develop those players.”
In signing the agreement, the BFA president
was wearing hats of Barbados and the
Caribbean as he is also the Caribbean Football
Union president, and had in addition
signed on to a similar agreement for the
rest of CFU’s 25 member countries.
“How many big football nations usually
take on people from the Caribbean? We
are only usually good for our vote, now we
are going to prove that we are good in the
game,” Harris said.
AFA’s Leon said of the agreement, “it’s
not only an exchange of players, referees,
coaches and managers but we would like to
also create here an environment in which
the Caribbean Football Association could
do a regional competition… Where a Caribbean
team can play in the South America
Cup.”
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BFA and CFU President, Randy Harris, (L) presents a CFU badge to
his Argentine counterpart, Gerardo Leon.
Photo by George Alleyne
/BayRidgeNissan.com