Miami, CMC: Jamaica may be one of two women’s national teams that could skip the Concacaf W Gold Cup qualifying tournament. The football confederation announced on Thursday the details for the 2023 Road to the W Gold Cup, which will serve as the qualifier for the inaugural W Gold Cup.
According to a Concacaf news release, the two teams that will contest the 2024 Olympic Games women’s football tournament in Paris, France – the United States and the Jamaicans or Canada – will not have to play the W Gold Cup qualifiers.
Following the conclusion of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand in August, when a record six Concacaf nations will play, the road to the first W Gold Cup will begin.
The qualifying tournament is scheduled during the FIFA Women’s international match windows in September, October, and November this year. The teams will be divided into three leagues based on their rankings as of March this year.
League A will feature the nine top-ranked teams – Canada or Jamaica (Olympic play-in loser), Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and St Kitts & Nevis – divided into three groups of three.
The following 12 best-ranked teams, divided into three groups of four, will contest League B, comprising El Salvador, Guyana, Dominican Republic, Bermuda, Nicaragua, Antigua & Barbuda, Honduras, Suriname, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Martinique, Barbados, and Dominica.
League C will feature the 12 lowest ranked teams – United States Virgin Islands, Belize, Curaçao, Cayman Islands, Aruba, Grenada, Anguilla, Turks & Caicos Islands, British Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe, Bahamas, and St Maarten divided into three groups of four teams.
After home and away group stage play, within each league, the top finishers in each League A group (three teams) will qualify for the 2024 W Gold Cup Group Stage.
The second-place finishers in each of the League A groups (three teams) and the first-place finishers in each of the League B groups (three units) will advance to the preliminary stage of the 2024 W Gold Cup (six teams in total).
Concacaf will conduct a draw for each league on Wednesday, May 17.
The W Gold Cup is the region’s premier senior women’s national team competition. It is a vital part of the women’s football strategy, which the confederation launched four years ago.
The inaugural W Gold Cup will be played in the United States between February 17 and March 10 next year.
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