HAVANA: The North American Soccer League believes Tuesday's friendly between the New York Cosmos and Cuba is set to usher in a new era of closer sporting ties between the two Cold War rivals.
The Cosmos will become the first professional American sports team to play in the Communist-ruled island since 1999 on Tuesday when they face the Cuban national team in Havana.
The match is the most significant sporting event involving the two nations since President Barack Obama and counterpart Raul Castro announced a historic effort to bury five decades of antagonism last December.
The NASL, regarded as the de facto second tier of football in the United States after Major League Soccer, see Tuesday's game as an opportunity to establish a beachhead in Cuba and the Caribbean.
"For us as a league it's probably most important that we're developing a new relationship," NASL commissioner Bill Peterson said Monday.
"The Caribbean area is very important to our league -- we had 25 players from the Caribbean playing in our league last year and we look forward to the day when there's a player from Cuba in our league."
Peterson said the NASL planned to forge closer working links with Cuban football over a range of areas.
"We will work with our hosts to explore all the key areas that you would expect us to explore -- whether it's players in our league, sharing coaches between Cuba and our league, player development, officiating," Peterson said.
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