The Golden Jaguars’s path to the prestigious 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar will be confirmed on August 19th, when regional confederation, Concacaf, stages its official draw for the qualifiers at 1:00pm.
This is according to a release from the entity yesterday.
“As previously announced, the Concacaf Qualifiers for Qatar 2022 will take place over the course of three rounds, beginning with the First Round in October and November 2020. 30 of Concacaf’s 35 FIFA Member Associations will start the journey to compete for the region’s 3.5 qualifying spots. Based on the FIFA World Ranking as of 16 July 2020, the draw for the first round will allocate the 30 lowest-ranked Concacaf teams to six groups.”
The release also stated that the draw will begin by allocating the 30 teams into six different groups consisting of five teams in each group. The six teams from Pot 1, including 2018 FIFA World Cup participant Panama, will be pre-seeded to positions A1, B1, C1, D1, E1 and F1. The highest ranked team in Pot 1, El Salvador, will occupy position A1, while the lowest ranked team in Pot 1, Trinidad and Tobago, will occupy position F1. The draw will continue by identifying groups for teams in Pots 2, 3, 4 and 5. The position which each team occupies in a group is determined based on the pot from which it is drawn. For example, teams from Pot 2 will be placed in position 2 of each group, teams from Pot 3 in position 3 of each group and so on. Teams drawn from each pot will be allocated to groups sequentially: A to F. The first team drawn will be placed in Group A, the next team drawn will be placed in Group B and so forth until Group F, stated the release.
Pot-1 will feature heavyweights El Salvador, Canada, Curaçao, Panama, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago. On the other hand, Pot-2 consists of Antigua and Barbuda, Guatemala, St Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.
Guyana will feature in Pot-3 alongside the likes of Grenada, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Bermuda and Belize. Meanwhile, Pot-4 contains St Lucia, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Montserrat, Dominica and Cayman Islands. The final pot will comprise Bahamas, Aruba, Turks and Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands and Anguilla.
The matches are scheduled to commence in the FIFA International Window in October, with the November International Window, the final slated period of the year, also pegged for fixtures. In the first round of the October period, Pot-2 will face-off with Pot-4, while Pot-1 will match skills with Pot-3. Likewise in the second round, Pot-2 will battle Pot-5 and Pot-4 engages Pot-1. Pot-3 and Pot-5 will match skills in the final match of the window.
Guyana will essentially open their campaign against one of the heavyweights, before facing one of the minnows in their second outing. Similarly, in the third round hosted during the November period, Pot-4 will match skills with Pot-5 while Pot-3 will oppose Pot-2. Likewise in the fourth round, Pot-5 battles Pot-1, whilst Pot-3 will lock horns with Pot-4 and Pot-1 tackles Pot-2.
Following the end of the first round of qualifiers, the respective group winners will progress to the second round, which is penciled for March 2021. The second round will feature a two-legged tie between the six group winners, with the winner of Group-A scheduled to play against Group-F, Group-B battling Group-E and Group-C opposing Group-D. The winners of these three two-legged ties will then advance to the Final Round of Concacaf the Qualifiers, beginning in June 2021.
The three resulting victors will progress to the final round which will consist of eight teams, five of whom are ranked 1-5 on the CONCACAF standings. Upon the conclusion of the final round, the top three teams will qualify to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The fourth placed finisher will contest the Confederation Playoff.
