… CONCACAF launches new senior women’s national team competitions to benefit entire Confederation

THE ‘Lady Jags’, Guyana’s senior female National football team, should be gearing up for a busy international period, as CONCACAF announced, Thursday, the structure of a new senior women’s national teams football calendar which will begin in 2021 and will include major centralised summer tournaments in 2022 and 2024.
The CONCACAF Council approved the structure of new competitions with the aim of transforming women’s national team football across the entire confederation.

The new calendar prioritises providing more official match dates for all CONCACAF women’s senior national teams and ensuring there is elite competition to showcase the highest level of women’s international football.
Through this new calendar, CONCACAF said the number of official senior women’s national team matches will more than double, compared with the current cycle of competitions.

“This major development for the women’s game follows the launch in June 2019 of CONCACAF W – the Confederation’s women’s football strategy – which has focussed on working with CONCACAF Member Associations (MAs) to grow all aspects of women’s football in North and Central America and the Caribbean,” the Confederation said in the statement on Friday.

According to the new structure, for the CONCACAF qualification tournament for the 2023 FIFA Women’s Cup, which will be played in FIFA Windows of November 2021 and April 2022, teams ranked three and below in the FIFA Rankings will be drawn into six groups of five.

Each team will play a total of four matches (two at home and two away); at the end of the group stage, the six group winners will qualify for a centralised Finals event.
The top two CONCACAF nations in the FIFA Rankings from August 2020, USA and Canada, will not compete in the group stage and will receive a bye straight to the Finals; should more than 30 CONCACAF Member Association participate in this competition, a Play-In would be organised ahead of the group stage.

The six group winners will be joined by the top two CONCACAF-ranked nations (USA and Canada). The eight nations will be split into two groups of four.
After single round-robin play, the two group winners will qualify for the knockout rounds; the final event will qualify CONCACAF teams into the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023.

Meanwhile, for the Women’s CONCACAF Nations League, the Group Stage will be played during the FIFA Windows of September, October, November 2023 (and April 2024 Play-In).
The competition will see CONCACAF national teams being split into groups within three leagues; home and away matches will be played within league groups.

The three top league group winners will qualify directly to the Finals event in summer of 2024; the second league group winners and runners-up from the top league will have an opportunity to compete in a Play-In to qualify for the Finals.

The CONCACAF women’s national teams which compete in the summer 2024 Olympic Games will not compete in the group stage and will receive a bye directly to the Finals.

The qualification of CONCACAF women’s national teams to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games will be structured through this new calendar of competitions. Further information on how Olympic qualification will be determined will be communicated in due course.

The names and brands of the new CONCACAF women’s senior national team competitions are still to be determined and will be communicated in 2021.