The Cuban Football Association announced that its September Fifa date commitments against Saint Kitts and Nevis were suspended after the rival declined to participate.

Havana, September 15 (JIT).- The Cuban Football Association announced that its September Fifa date commitments against Saint Kitts and Nevis were suspended after the rival declined to participate.

"Regrettably, we wish to inform that Saint Kitts and Nevis cannot participate in the matches already confirmed due to logistical problems beyond our control," said the association's general secretary, Techell McLean, in a letter.

The AFC tried to reach agreements with other rivals to play the matches scheduled for September 22 and 25, but it was not possible under the current conditions, according to Miguel Angel Diaz, secretary general of the AFC.

Playing these matches was of vital importance for the Cuban national team in order to score points for the Fifa ranking and to test players from the national league, the latter focused on preparing for positional changes and evaluating the different variants in the squad led by Pablo Elier Sanchez.

"We contacted several associations in the area that showed interest in confronting our national team, but the short time between the cancellation of Saint Kitts and Nevis and the date of the matches made it impossible to make it happen," the executive informed JIT.

"Among those federations are Belize, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Even the latter was about to arrive in the Greater Antilles after knowing the guarantees that we offered to host them, but difficulties with the airline ticketing prevented it," Diaz said.

The also technical chief of the National Football Commission clarified that Cuba had all the conditions to host the matches.