Concacaf delays women’s World Cup and Olympic qualifying

MIAMI, Florida, (CMC):

Concacaf, the confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean football, has delayed the start of the women’s World Cup and Olympic qualifying.

Concacaf said on Friday that the W Qualifiers, as they are now called, will now begin during the FIFA women’s window of February 2022.

The first round of the qualifiers to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and 2024 Women’s Olympic Football Tournament were scheduled to kick off next month, during the FIFA Women’s match window of November 2021.

“The scheduling change has been made by Concacaf due to challenges associated with travel into and within certain countries in our region due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the confederation said in a news release.

“The confederation believes this is in the best interests of the tournament, players and officials. These matches are the first stage of Concacaf’s new women’s national teams’ ecosystem and will be part of a hugely important year of women’s football in our region.”

In addition to the qualifiers, Concacaf said its W Championship, Women’s Under-20 and Under-17 competitions, and the FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica will spell a big year for women’s football in the confederation

Concacaf also said the schedule for the matches taking place during the FIFA women’s match window in April next year remains unchanged.

The 30 teams taking part in the W Qualifiers (all ranked No.3 and below in the FIFA Women’s Rankings as of July 2021) were placed in six groups following the draw for the competition that took place on August 3.

The groups are as follows:

n Group A: Mexico, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Antigua & Barbuda and Anguilla

n Group B: Costa Rica, Guatemala, St Kitts & Nevis, United States Virgin Islands, and Curacao

n Group C: Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Bermuda, Grenada and Cayman Islands

n Group D: Panama, El Salvador, Barbados, Belize and Aruba

n Group E: Haiti, Cuba, Honduras, St Vincent & the Grenadines and British Virgin Islands

n Group F: Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, Nicaragua, Dominica and Turks & Caicos Islands