Reggae Girlz’s trip to Basque off

The Reggae Girlz's participation in a four-team tournament in Basque, Spain, next month is off.

Head Coach Hubert Busby Jr told STAR Sports that the team has been forced to cancel its participation in the tournament because of travel logistics.

He said that this a setback for the Reggae Girlz, who were looking forward to taking part in the tournament.

"It is disappointing that we were not able to work through the logistics of this particular camp," he said. "However, we are working on doing something for the next window that will take place in June.

"This would have been our first camp in over 14 months and it is well overdue. Obviously, we have had a pandemic and we have seen the logistics of travel. The complications of COVID have made it difficult."

Jamaica were invited by the Basque government along with Uruguay and Nigeria. The tournament is set for April 7-11, but the team was scheduled to be in Spain from March 31 to April 12.

"At the end of the day, football is being played now, so we need to start playing as well," Busby said. "It is a huge disappointment more than anything because I know that the players and staff were anxious to do something, so we just have to try and get something done for June.

"We are trying to make sure that the June camp and friendlies are being prioritised because we will have a lot of our players available to us."

The Reggae Girlz advanced to the third and final round of FIFA World Cup qualifiers as one of the top five ranked teams in Concacaf. They open their qualification campaign against Mexico in September.