CONCACAF U-17 Women’s Qualifiers
– team didn’t feature at 2023 edition
The Lady Jaguars have been drawn in group C in round one of the 2025 CONCACAF U-17 Women’s Qualifiers, which will occur from January 27th – 31st, following the official draw yesterday.
Group C, which will be hosted in the Dominican Republic, also contains Panama, Cuba, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Guyana will open their campaign on Monday, January 27th, against Cuba before battling Panama two days later. They will end their group campaign against Turks & Caicos on January 31st.
In the 2022 edition, Guyana qualified for the elimination round after finishing with a record of two wins and a loss in Group C. Guyana defeated Anguilla 1-0 and Turks and Caicos 6-0 but lost to group winner Honduras 0-6. They then lost 0-15 to eventual runner-up Mexico in the round of 16.
The event will feature a new two-round format. Group A comprises Puerto Rico, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, while Group B features Trinidad and Tobago, Honduras, Belize, and the US Virgin Islands.
Group D contains El Salvador, Guatemala, Curaçao, and Anguilla, with Group E consisting of Jamaica, Nicaragua, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. Group F is made up of Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Grenada.
Following the conclusion of the group round, the respective pool winners as well as the two best second-place finishers will advance to the second round. At this juncture, the top four teams in the form of the USA, Mexico, Canada, and Haiti will enter the event and bring the total number to 12.
This segment will also feature a round-robin section comprising three groups of four from March 31st-April 6th. The eventual group winners and best second-place finisher will qualify for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.
Puerto Rico will stage Group A, while Trinidad and Tobago will host Group B. Groups D and E will be contested in Nicaragua, while the Dominican Republic will also host Group F.
The Lady Jaguars did not participate in the 2023 edition of the qualifiers due to financial constraints and management personnel limitations, stated GFF President Wayne Forde.
Forde, during a previous interview with Stabroek Sport, revealed that the federation would not entertain the notion of competing at three international tournaments within the same period, noting that the overlapping of the competitions would put a severe strain on the coffers of the federation as well as its technical personnel.
Forde disclosed that the u17 women’s qualifiers would have attracted a cost of approximately GY$14 million to undertake. However, he disclosed that the then-impending CONCACAF Nations League will attract a cost of GY$90 million for the six qualifying matches, while the looming Road to the Gold Cup Women’s Qualifiers, which will also comprise six matches, will incur a price of GY$77 million.
The GFF instead staged a three-match series against Suriname for the programme.
