On the heels of a successful Island Games for Cayman, where athletes across several sports collected 18 medals, Alfredo Whittaker, president of the Cayman Islands Football Association, now wants to share in the glory for the 2025 event.
“Obviously, anything that is football, we are interested in getting the teams registered to participate,” Whittaker told the Compass, though the Cayman Islands has never competed in football at an Island Games, since the event started 38 years ago.
The event has proven to be advantageous for Cayman, since its debut at the event’s eighth edition held in Gotland in 1999. Cayman has earned 310 medals in 12 Island Games – 122 of which were gold. In addition to that, Cayman athletes have never earned fewer than 14 medals at a single Island Games competition.
The only major national tournaments over the last decade that the Cayman Islands’ senior football women and men have taken part in are CONCACAF or FIFA-sanctioned events and competitions under the Caribbean Football Union. Outside of friendlies or preseason international events, Cayman football has not medalled at a recognised event in eight years – the last time was at the 2015 CFU Boys’ Under-15 Championship, where Cayman took bronze.
With Cayman continuously falling short or “gaining experience” at the same tournaments year after year – most recently the men’s team going winless in the CONCACAF Nations League and the women’s team winning once out of four games during the 2022 CONCACAF W Championship qualification, perhaps it is time to introduce something different for better results – the Island Games.
Cayman’s men’s team is currently positioned at 193 in the FIFA rankings. However, the other national football teams that made the podium at the 2023 Island Games aren’t ranked at all by FIFA, meaning, on paper, Cayman would be among the favourites for medals despite their recent track record.
“I feel that the participation of the Cayman Islands [at] Island Games is pretty much the same athletes, same groups that represents us and they do a great job, but it would be good if we could get football to participate and to show the comparisons with other small islands,” Whittaker said.
Athletics, badminton, basketball, cycling, golf, swimming, sailing, tennis and ping pong have commonly represented the Cayman Islands at the games but never football.
Whittaker, who is in his sixth year as president after being re-elected in 2021, noted that he has tried to secure a spot in the past, saying his efforts were a little too late after difficulties encountered due to teams being preselected by organisers.
“We’ll try once again for the upcoming Island Games and hopefully this time they will take us into consideration,” Whittaker said.
Another competition at which Cayman football has not been represented at since 1993 is the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games. Cayman participated at the event last month in El Salvador across six different sports – swimming, rugby 7s, beach volleyball, sailing, athletics and netball, but no football.
That event falls under the [Cayman Islands] Olympic Committee. However, according to Whittaker, previous efforts to communicate with the CIOC have fallen on deaf ears.
“I had answered the request through the Olympic Committee and I’ve always said, ‘yes’, but I never got an answer advising that we were selected or that they are looking into it,” Whittaker said about the Island Games.
However, the International Olympic Committee – the governing body of all national Olympic committees – is not responsible for organising the Island Games.
While Cayman footballers have yet to enter the 2024 CAC Games or the 2025 Island Games, perhaps the national teams could be part of those competitions and bring home a medal or two.
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