CONCACAF has finalized the draw for the 2022 CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 championships. Thirty-two member associations will compete in the 2022 CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship. The Championship will have three rounds (Qualifiers, Group Stage, and Knockout Stage).
Based on the current CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Ranking, the top 16 teams will qualify directly to the Group Stage, while the remaining 16 participating teams will begin to play in the Qualifiers.
Meanwhile, the teams that have qualified directly to the Group Stage of the Championship in ranking order are – Mexico, Canada, United States, Haiti, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, El Salvador, Panama, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Grenada, and Nicaragua.
CONCACAF divided the teams into four pots according to their ranking for the said draw.
The four pots are as follows:
Pot 1: Honduras, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Pot 2: Saint Lucia, Curacao, Dominica, and Cayman Islands.
Pot 3: US Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Guyana, and Belize.
Pot 4: Suriname, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Guadeloupe, and Turks and Caicos Islands.
CONCACAF has scheduled the Qualifiers round-robin for August 2021. The four group winners will advance to the knockout stage. CONCACAF has not yet announced the venue, but Bradenton, Florida has all the facilities for a tournament of such magnitude.
CONCACAF also said that the Group Stage and Knockout Stage will be played in the first quarter of 2022.
“The 16 teams participating will be divided into four groups. After round-robin play, the top three teams in each group will advance to the Round of 16, joining the four Qualifiers winners,” said CONCACAF.
“The entire Knockout Stage (Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semi-finals, Third-Place Match, and Final) will be played in a single match, direct elimination format.”
At the end of it all, the champions, sub champs, and the third-place team qualify for the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup to be played in India between October 11-30, 2022.
Following the draw, Saint Lucia is in Group D, together with Antigua and Barbuda, Guadeloupe, and Guyana.
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