Concacaf delays start to women’s World Cup, Olympic qualifying
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — The start of Concacaf’s women qualifiers, part of regional qualifying for the 2023 Women’s World Cup and the 2024 Olympic Games, is being pushed back to February 2022 as novel coronavirus travel restrictions continue to bite.
Football’s governing body for North and Central America and the Caribbean said yesterday the first round of the qualifiers, originally scheduled to kick off next month during the Fifa women’s match window, would now begin during the world governing body’s February 2022 window for international play.
“The scheduling change has been made by Concacaf due to challenges associated with travel into and within certain countries in our region due to the novel coronavirus pandemic,” the body said in a statement.
“The confederation believes this is in the best interests of the tournament, players, and officials.”
The 30 teams that will be taking part in the women’s qualifiers have already been decided and drawn into groups.
After group stage play, in which each nation will play two matches at home and two matches away, the top finisher in each of the groups will advance to the Concacaf Women’s Championship, joining the top two ranked nations in the region – the United States and Canada — who received byes straight to the region’s final qualifying tournament which is to take place in July 2022.
United States are the two-time reigning champions.
The inaugural Women’s Championship offers a revamped qualifying path to the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, as well as the 2024 Paris Games, where Canada will be the defending champions after their triumph in Tokyo this year.