… Guyana in Pot ‘B’ with Nicaragua, St Kitts, Curacao, Suriname, Antigua, Dominican Republic, Bermuda and Belize

THE Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) yesterday announced the details of CONCACAF Nations League Qualifying, a preliminary competition for the new CONCACAF Nations League, the Confederation-wide league for national teams set to be launched tomorrow in Miami.

The Confederation also revealed the newly-developed CONCACAF Ranking Index, a modern indexing system for the region’s national teams which will guide the seeding of CONCACAF teams for qualifying to international tournaments going forward.
CONCACAF Nations League Qualifying will involve 34 of the region’s 40 currently eligible men’s national teams, and will be played on FIFA match dates from September 2018 through March 2019.

Nations League Qualifying will set the table for the first edition of the CONCACAF Nations League, which will be launched in 2019 with all eligible CONCACAF Member Associations.
The newly-launched CONCACAF Ranking will be used for the first time to index the 34 participating teams for the live CONCACAF Nations League Qualifying draw to be held tomorrow, producing an evenly-weighted slate of fixtures.

Each team will play a total of four matches between September and March, resulting at the qualifiers’ conclusion in a combined table which will be used to seed all 34 contestants into tiers for the inaugural edition of the full CONCACAF Nations League.

By virtue of having qualified for the Hexagonal Round of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers Russia 2018, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, the United States and Trinidad & Tobago earned the right to be seeded directly into the top tier of the inaugural Nations League, and therefore will not participate in the Nations League Qualifiers.

In view of the ongoing suspension imposed by FIFA, Guatemala will not be able to participate in CONCACAF Nations League Qualifying.
Meanwhile, the 2018 CONCACAF Nations League Qualifying Draw will be conducted using four pots containing all eligible participating member associations (PMAs), except for the six teams that participated in the Hexagonal Round of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers Russia 2018.

Based on the CONCACAF Ranking Index, all eligible teams will be divided into the four pots (A, B, C & D), which will see Jamaica, Canada, Haiti, El Salvador, Martinique, Cuba, French Guiana and Guadeloupe being placed in Pot A.

Pot B will include Nicaragua, St Kitts & Nevis, Curacao, Suriname, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominican Republic, Bermuda, Guyana and Belize, while in Pot C Bonaire, Grenada, St Vincent & the Grenadines, St Lucia, Barbados, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Dominica and Aruba.
Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, U.S. Virgin Islands, Saint-Martin, Sint Maarten, Anguilla and British Virgin Islands are in Pot D.