GUYANA’S senior National men’s football team, popularly known as the Golden Jaguars, will begin their FIFA 2018 Russia World Cup bid in June, according to the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Football Association (CONCACAF). The seeding for the draw for this edition of CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying was based on FIFA rankings as of August 2014 and the 35 member associations, competing to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, have been ranked 1-35.
According to the regional governing body for the sport, the 14 national teams ranked 22 to 35 – (St Kitts & Nevis, Belize, Montserrat, Dominica, Barbados, Bermuda, Nicaragua, Turks & Caicos, Curacao, US Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla – in order of rank) will compete in Round One of the Preliminary Competition, which consists of seven home-and-away series to be contested March 23-31 this year.
For Round Two, the thirteen member associations ranked 9-21 – Canada, Cuba, Aruba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Suriname, Guatemala, St Vincent & the Grenadines, St Lucia, Grenada, Antigua & Barbuda, Guyana, Puerto Rico – in order of rank) will join the seven Round One series winners, for ten more home-and-away series to be held between June 8 and 16, 2015.
Round Three, which consists of another series of home-and-away match-ups, featuring ten Round Two series winners, joined by the two member associations ranked 7 and 8 – Jamaica and Haiti – will be played August 31–September 8.
The final six member associations (ranked 1 to 6) will join the competition for Round 4, which consists of three groups of four teams and is scheduled to be played in a round-robin format between November 2015 and September 2016.
The now famed CONCACAF Hexagonal will constitute Round Five, continuing in its historic, six-team format (top two teams from each Round Four group), and will be played between November 2016 and October 2017, qualifying three CONCACAF nations directly to the FIFA World Cup and providing a further intercontinental playoff spot for the fourth-placed team.
The match-ups and groupings for Rounds Three, Four and Five of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying will be determined at the FIFA World Cup Qualifying Draw in St Petersburg, Russia, on July 25, 2015.
Meanwhile, Association heads and other representatives will gather tonight in Miami where the draw for the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers will take place. Thereafter, respective opponents will be disclosed.
Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Normalisation Committee Chairman and recently appointed Technical Director Claude Bolton are Jaguars’ representatives in Miami. (Rawle Toney)
