Saint Lucia National Football Union - last updated on 14 September 2007
(Courtesy of Johnny Beaufays)
Association name: Saint Lucia National Football Union
Foundation: 1979
Confederation Concacaf
Colours: Sky blue, black and gold
Website: www.stluciafa.com
Honours:
Saint Lucia National Football Union has currently no honours.
A bit of history:
The FA was founded in 1979, the same year the island gained independence, and is headquartered in Castries, the nation's capital. It runs the St. Lucia men's and women's junior and senior national teams, as well as its domestic football competitions, which include both men's and women's professional leagues and youth championships.
In international competition, St. Lucia's football teams have had some modest success against their Caribbean neighbours, but beyond that geographical area their experience is quite limited. In fact, when the men's team faced Panama in qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, it marked the first time they had ever played an opponent outside of the Caribbean zone. The men's team has attempted to qualify for the World Cup four times, but has yet to make it past the second preliminary round in the CONCACAF region. They have been more competitive in Caribbean Cup competition, advancing as far as the semifinals. The women's national team attempted to qualify for the Women's World Cup for the first time in 2003, but did not advance past the first qualifying round despite securing two wins and a draw.
Having just joined FIFA in 1988 after founding their football association nine years earlier, St. Lucia are only now trying to find their feet in Caribbean football. In their short history with FIFA World Cup qualifying, the islanders have had very limited success, though they did manage a victory on their debut and have been showing growing promise over the past few years.
Their first qualifying match came in March of 1992 against St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and while that contest ended famously 1-0, the 3-1 reverse in the second leg put paid to St. Lucia's initial dreams of glory. Four years later, St. Kitts and Nevis were the vanquishers, this time by a more demoralising 6-1.
In qualifying for Korea/Japan 2002, the team very nearly came through with a relatively noteworthy upset. They beat South American-based CONCACAF outfit Surinam 1-0 in the home leg with a goal from Rene Regis. However, they fell by the same scoreline in the return and lost the resulting penalty shoot-out.
St. Lucia had a better time of it in qualifying for Germany 2006 handing the British Virgin Islands a 10-0 thrashing in the first round. But despite putting up a brave fight against a powerful Panamanian side at the next hurdle, the Caribbean islanders fell 4-0 away and 3-0 at home.
With qualifying for South Africa now foremost in their minds, the brave men from St. Lucia will be keen to confirm that they have indeed learned much in their formative years.
Club crests: (roll on the crest to get more informations)
Saint Lucia National Football Union
