CONCACAF has a new qualifying system for the 2014 World Cup. Preliminary Round: The 10 lowest ranked teams in CONCACAF are matched up and play home and away to advance 5 teams. 1st Round: Those 5 winners join the next highest ranked 19 teams for a group stage. Those 24 teams will be drawn into 6 groups of 4 teams each. Only the winners of those groups will advance to the next round. 2nd Round: The 6 group winners and the top 6 countries who received byes to this round are drawn into 3 groups of four teams. The top two from each group advance to the final hex. 3rd Round: The good old hex. The surviving 6 teams play a single group stage to determine the three automatic qualifiers and the 4th place team that will enter the intercontinental playoffs.
Dates for the rounds. Preliminary Round June 3, 2011 June 7, 2011 1st Round September 2, 2011 September 6, 2011 October 7, 2011 October 11, 2011 November 11, 2011 November 15, 2011 2nd Round June 8, 2012 June 12, 2012 September 7, 2012 September 11, 2012 October 12, 2012 October 16, 2012 3rd Round February 6, 2013 March 22, 2013 March 26, 2013 June 7, 2013 June 11, 2013 June 18, 2013 September 6, 2013 September 10, 2013 October 11, 2013 October 15, 2013
It's not exactly clear to me which rankings that CONCACAF is using to determine who is in which rounds. The current FIFA rankings wold divide the teams like this: Preliminary Round 35 Montserrat 34 Anguilla 33 US Virgin Islands 32 Aruba 31 Bahamas 30 Turks and Caicos Islands 29 St Lucia 28 British Virgin Islands 27 Dominican Republic 26 Belize Enter in 1st Round 25 Bermuda 24 Nicaragua 23 Cayman Islands 22 St Vincent and the Grenadines 21 Curacao 20 Barbados 19 Puerto Rico 18 Dominica 17 Guatemala 16 St Kitts and Nevis 15 Suriname 14 Guyana 13 Antigua and Barbuda 12 Haiti 11 Trinidad and Tobago 10 Grenada 9 El Salvador 8 Canada 7 Panama Enter in 2nd Round 6 Cuba 5 Costa Rica 4 Jamaica 3 Honduras 2 Mexico 1 USA
haha-does Montserrat even have a home pitch? the last time I checked they couldn't play home matches due to the volcano.
First Round schedule and one result already: 1st Leg Wednesday, June 15, 2011 Montserrat 2-5 Belize (match was played in Trinidad & Tobago) Saturday, July 2, 2011 Turks and Caicos Islands v. Bahamas Sunday, July 3, 2011 U.S. Virgin Islands v. British Virgin Islands Friday, July 8, 2011 Anguilla v. Dominican Republic (will be played in the Dominican Republic) Aruba v. Saint Lucia 2nd Leg Saturday, July 9, 2011 Bahamas v. Turks and Caicos Islands Sunday, July 10, 2011 Dominican Republic v. Anguilla British Virgin Islands v. U.S. Virgin Islands Tuesday, July 12, 2011 Saint Lucia v. Aruba Winners of this round move on to Round 2 to face teams ranked from 7 to 25. Round 2 will be played from September 2 to November 15, 2011. Round 2 will have six groups of four teams each. Only the group winners advance to Round 3 where the teams ranked 1 to 6 join the tournament. The top six ranked teams were in fact: Mexico United States Honduras Jamaica Costa Rica Cuba Those teams do not start play until June of 2012.
It should be noted that Belize probably will be disqualified, and return leg has been postponed. Tragedy. http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/06/18/idINIndia-57770920110618
From my perspective this would be particularly stupid considering you have a 5-2 lead and likely can milk 2 home qualifiers for money. You can't secure the premises for Monserrat??????? Ain't like it's security for the US or Mexico. FIFA does this sort of brinksmanship all the time. Usually the country involved backs down, but we'll see.
Yep. Not to mention if Belize makes it again and holds the qualifier here in Reliant Stadium, again...then well there goes another 60,000 people filling up seats.
Didn't FIFA changed their rules after Belize played their home game here in Houston?, I could be wrong, but I remember that FIFA said that from then on, if you didn't have a FIFA approved stadium, you couldn't play your games anywhere else, automatically forfeiting those games. FIFA will not back down, the one thing they follow to the letter, the one thing they never, ever, compromise is governments trying to control or rule over soccer federations. As bad, as corrupt, as disunified as FIFA is, they know that soccer as a sport is so noble that it will survive, but they also know that the day governments try to rule on their countries, that will be the real end, it is better to have a bad but stable federation than having the new president or new secretary of state or new secretary of sports changing everyone and every rule.
Obviously not true since the first leg of Belize-Montserrat series was played in T&T. And the Anguilla home leg is in the Dominican Republic. You may be thinking of the change in the CONCACAF Champions league where games cannot be moved out of the hosting country.
Mmmhh, then I stand corrected, you may be right and I was probably thinking about the Champions League.
Couple more results over the weekend: 1st Leg Wednesday, June 15, 2011 Montserrat 2-5 Belize (match was played in Trinidad & Tobago) Saturday, July 2, 2011 Turks and Caicos Islands 0-4 Bahamas Sunday, July 3, 2011 U.S. Virgin Islands 2-0 British Virgin Islands Friday, July 8, 2011 Anguilla v. Dominican Republic (will be played in the Dominican Republic) Aruba v. Saint Lucia 2nd Leg Saturday, July 9, 2011 Bahamas v. Turks and Caicos Islands Sunday, July 10, 2011 Dominican Republic v. Anguilla British Virgin Islands v. U.S. Virgin Islands Tuesday, July 12, 2011 Saint Lucia v. Aruba I cannot find verification if Belize has officially been eliminated from qualifying by FIFA or not.
Unless things are fixed by the 10th of this month Belize will be disqualified and Monserrat will move on.
Do you have a source for that? It was my understanding that the suspension had to be lifted before June 30 and that the game between Belize and Montserrat had to be played before July 10. It is now after June 30 and I don't find any lifting of the suspension. July 10 is only 5 days away and I don't see a game scheduled.
The article that wikipedia links to says: Hmmm. I guess it depends what "rescheduled before July 10" means. Sure sounds to me like Belize has to recognize the FFB, FIFA has to lift the suspension, and the game has to be played by the 10th. There should be some news coming out if any of that is happening.
All the other games are being played in the July 9-12, 2011 neighborhood so arguably they want it played ("scheduled to be played") by July 10. That puts teeth in FIFA's decision, which is basically a ban that goes away if you cooperate. Given today's date and the need to coordinate international referees and so forth, I'd assume Belize is running in the red on the tachometer, if it has not blown its engine already. Now, in theory your absolute drop-dead date would be July 31, 2011, when the draw for the CONCACAF second round takes place in Brazil.
FIFA has temporarily lifted the suspension of Belize at least until August 15. http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/media/newsid=1470955/
Belize home leg to played at honduras' Estadio Olimpico Metropalitano. http://www.concacaf.com/page/WCQ/NewsDetail/0,,12813~2388449,00.html
Well this Bahamas team may be better than years past. Streamrolls Turks and Caicos 6-0 in the return leg, wins on aggregate 10-0 and advances to the second round. congrats to them.