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criticism about not taking a knee Gold Cup prelims set By George Alleyne Eight Caribbean teams, in a 12-country matchup, will next year feature in Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Football preliminary playoffs, out of which three will qualify for the Gold Cup, the region’s premier football competition. Based on draws Monday, Haiti will take on St Vincent and the Grenadines; Guatemala play Guyana; Trinidad and Tobago come up against Monserrat; Cuba clash with French Guiana; Guadeloupe kick off against The Bahamas; and Bermuda boot off against Barbados in matches that will begin July 2, 2021, at a centralized location in the United States. The six emerging winners will then be matchedup for one-off encounters and the three winners will join the other 12 teams that have already qualified for the prestigious Gold Cup competition that begins July 10 and should end in August. World Cup 2020 host and current Asian champions, Qatar, will play as a guest team �� Caribbean L 28 ife, Oct. 2-8, 2020 in this tournament, making a total of 16. CONCACAF has three direct slots in the World Cup and there is an opportunity for a fourth place through an interconfederation playoff. Trinidad’s entry into the preliminary playoffs is provisional as the world football governing body, FIFA, last week banned that twin-island republic from international games because that nation’s association flouted rules and took a matter it has against FIFA to a local court instead of applying to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). In spite of weeks of warnings, TTFA former president William Wallace, who had gone to the High Court challenging FIFA’s removal of him from the executive, refused to withdraw his legal action and take it to CAS, resulting in the entire country being slapped with a ban. FIFA stated that the ban would be lifted only if Wallace withdraws his action and TTFA agrees to other measures, including an agreement that a ‘Normalisation Committee’ TTFA President William Wallace poses during a staff photoshoot on Jan. 9, 2020. Wired 868 via Allan V Crane/TTFA Media/CA-images replace the executive by Dec. 18. If the Trinidadians do not meet that deadline, the ban would continue indefinitely and CONCACAF stated that in such event it would replace them in the preliminaries with Antigua and Barbuda. Langer accepts Holding’s By Nelson A. King Cricket Australia’s coach Justin Langer has admitted that the national team did not commit enough time to understanding and learning about the Black Lives Matter issue before choosing not to take a knee prior to their first T20 match since the movement entered the cricket world in a big way earlier this year, according to ESPNcricinfo. Following blunt criticism from former West Indies fast bowler-turned-television cricket commentator, Michael Holding, Langer said that, as Cricket Australia went through its own extensive process of reflection about how inclusive it has been for people of color, the team should have found more time to contemplate taking a knee before the opening match of the T20I series against England in Southampton, England, ESPNcricinfo said. “In terms of the taking a knee, to be completely honest, we could’ve talked more about it perhaps leading up to that first game,” said Langer, a former Australia batsman. “There was so much going on leading up to us getting here, maybe we should’ve thought and talked a bit more about it. “What we do talk about in the team is we want to have a response that is sustained and powerful, and it can go, not just in one action but sustained periods, not just throughout this series, throughout our summer, but throughout time,” he added. “We’re looking at ways,” Langer continued. “I know there’s a lot of talk going on within our group about how we can. I know there’s a lot of talking going on about the Australian women’s team as well, about how we can have a sustained and powerful response to Black Lives Matter. “It’s incredibly important, and I just hope and certainly from Mikey’s (Michael Holding) point of view, I hope if it looked like there was a lack of respect there, that certainly wasn’t the intention of our team,” Langer assured. ��