Galveston, Texas, August 20th, 2014- Galveston Pirate Soccer Club is excited to announce that effective immediately, the West Indies Football Association based in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, have entered into an exclusive partnership agreement.
The West Indies Football Association was set up in June 2013 although there was a previous Association many years ago in the 50's called the British Caribbean Football Association. It was a Caribbean select team that played matches mostly against British opposition.
The Association will field a national football program as well as a youth program so that West Indian nationals who haven't had the chance to represent their countries can taste and experience International football.
Both sides will obviously benefit from this partnership, although full terms of the deal were not disclosed, some highlights include the sending of 3-4 players a season to Pirate SC to experience high level football and expose to players to scouts and college coaches in the USA, giving the West Indian players opportunities they may not have had otherwise.
As for the Pirate SC players already on the team , those of West Indian descent are immediately eligible to play for the West Indian National Team. Also, the developmental squad of the WIFA will be renamed the WIFA Pirates, in honor of this new agreement.
“This agreement is another huge step in a short amount of time for Pirate SC, this will enable several of our players from the region to participate in international soccer on a global stage” Pirate owner Bill Alsobrook stated. WIFA Technical Director James Baird had this to say in response to the announcement.
“This is a wonderful partnership for both parties and I am sure this will be a huge success in the short term and the long term, the Galveston program gives us what we were missing in terms of professional opportunities and is an organisation that is striving to hit bigger heights, we hope the West Indies supporters and vice versa the Galveston supporters will support each other and help us achieve great things together”.
WIFA is sanctioned by the N.F. Board, It is made up of teams that represent nations, dependencies, unrecognized states, minorities, stateless peoples, regions and micronations not affiliated to FIFA.