The sec­ond round of the Caribbean Foot­ball Union's Cham­pi­ons Cup was thrown in­to a state of con­fu­sion, when two clubs with­drew. The CFU an­nounced yes­ter­day that Tem­pete FC of Haiti and Leo Vic­tor of Suri­name have been forced to pull out of their match­es in Baya­mon, Puer­to Ri­co. The re­gion­al gov­ern­ing body said that Tem­pete were forced to with­draw from the com­pe­ti­tion, fol­low­ing dif­fi­cul­ties ob­tain­ing Amer­i­can visas to en­ter Puer­to Ri­co.

The Haitians were to play in Group-B with hosts Bayam�n FC and Av­enues Unit­ed of St. Vin­cent & the Grenadines. The CFU al­so dis­closed that Leo Vic­tor pulled out of the com­pe­ti­tion for fi­nan­cial rea­sons. The Suri­namese were to par­tic­i­pate in Group-A along with the Puer­to Ri­co Is­landers and Rac­ing Go­naives of Haiti. As a re­sult of the with­drawals, the CFU has tak­en the de­ci­sion to con­test both Group A and B as two-team groups.

Group B had kicked-off on Tues­day, when Bayam�n de­feat­ed Av­enues Unit­ed 5-2. The re­turn leg of their se­ries was played yes­ter­day, and will de­cide the win­ner of this group. The Puer­to Ri­co Is­landers and Rac­ing will meet on to­day and Sun­day to de­cide the win­ner of Group-A. The two group win­ners in Puer­to Ri­co will join two group win­ners from sec­ond round match­es in T&T to play in the fi­nal group stage. The top three fin­ish­ers in the CFU Cham­pi­ons Cup will then progress to the pre­lim­i­nary round of the Con­ca­caf Cham­pi­ons League. (CMC)