http://www.concacaf.com/page/ConfederationDetail/0,,12813~2030435,00.html begins by saying "NEW YORK - The CONCACAF under-20 and under-17 championships will expand to 12 teams beginning in 2011, while the Women's Gold Cup and Olympic qualifying will increase to eight-team events beginning later this year, the confederation announced Tuesday." The Women's Gold Cup used to be a knockout tournament with six teams and no group stage. With eight teams I hope there will be two groups of four. Also of note is that a previous announcement that North American national teams would have to participate in qualifying with UNCAF national teams is no longer true due to the tournaments being expanded.
I wouldn't count on finding out the qualifying format until 2011. How long after the World Cup does FIFA normally take to say how many teams each confederation will get in the next World Cup?
Could probably have a fairly competitive tournament with 16 teams: Canada US Mexico T&T Jamaica Honduras Costa Rica El Salvador Panama Guatemala Cuba Bermuda Surinam Martinique Guadeloupe St Vincent St Kitts Haiti That's 18 there, so 2 have an off-year and miss out... small teams like Antigua maybe could sneak in. I admit I'm scraping the barrel a bit but it would be good for the confederations in the long run to have more competition than 2-4 competitive games every 4 years.
i seen on espn deportes earlier that this format of WCQ could take place for 2014: 32 national teams (2 NT on the top 12 in the region rankings along with 2 NT from 13-32 in the region rankings for each group.....all games will be home-and-away) 8 groups of 4 (top 2 NT advance) not so complicated example: USA Haiti Bahamas Dominica then: 4 groups of 4 (top 2 NT advance) a bit complicated.. then: 2 goups of 4 (top team advance to the 2014 WC) more complicated.. the best 3rd place team also advances to the WC which leaves the 4th place team for a playoff match against south america.....confusing??...lol...