With St Lucia withdrawing from the FIFA World Cup qualifiers that begin their players have not been officially informed that they will not be playing Nicaragua in Nicaragua tomorrow.

Caribbean Football Union sources told Sportsmax.TV today that FIFA has confirmed that St Lucia has withdrawn from the qualifiers but no reason was given. Several calls to the STLA today were not answered and calls to Technical Director Ces Podd also went unanswered.

However, Piton Boyz midfielder Zaine Pierre has revealed that the players are in the dark as it relates to the World Cup qualifiers.

“No, we haven't been formally notified,” he told Sportsmax.Tv earlier today, “all that was said to some players, weeks ago, was that it was highly unlikely we would take part and that they were waiting for an official response from FIFA, but since then we have heard nothing.”

He said the players spoke with Podd but “the story was the same”, he said.

Sources on the ground in St Lucia have indicated that logistical challenges regarding assembling a team for the qualifiers are largely to blame for the decision to withdraw. St Lucia, the sources said, has not had domestic football since March 2020 when the pandemic caused lockdowns across the globe.

This gave rise to the challenge of calling on players to travel from their respective leagues across the world to St Lucia for national team training.