Gordon Williams, Contributor

Lack of support from the local Jamaican community has been blamed for the cancellation of a planned friendly football international between the Reggae Boyz and Guatemala in Chicago, United States.

The game, which was scheduled for August 6 as a warm-up for Jamaica's upcoming World Cup qualifiers, was called off by the promoters after they could not guarantee a sizeable attendance by Reggae Boyz fans and feared huge money loss.

"(This week) we went and investigated the area and found that there was no way to reach the Jamaican community in Chicago," Hugo Bandi, a representative of Power Promotions, the US-based company which was staging the game, said on Friday.

" ... It was really financial suicide if we were not able to reach the Jamaican community."

Lack of Jamaican support

According to Bandi, there was virtually no Jamaican media to help promote the game. He said a crowd of 10,000 at Chicago's Toyota Park would have been enough for the promoters to break even.

However, he added that while they could expect some 7,000 Guatemalan supporters at the match, the promoters were unsure where to find the remaining 3,000.

"Where was the Jamaican support going to come from?" he asked Friday.

The promoters said they had agreed to terms with the Jamaica Football Federation and that the JFF bore no blame for their decision to call off the game. He admitted that the decision was a big blow.

"It is a disappointment to both of us," explained Bandi, who said he informed the JFF of the cancellation a couple days ago by email. He said there are no plans to find another date or venue for the game.

The cancellation of the Guatemala game means the Reggae Boyz have only one confirmed scheduled warm-up match before facing Canada in a CONCACAF semi-final World Cup fixture on August 20 in Toronto. They travel to Frisco, Texas, another US city, to play El Salvador on July 26.

Gordon Williams is a Jamaican journalist based in the United States.