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Friday, October 13, 2017

2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying: CONCACAF

For the 2018 qualifiers, CONCACAF chose to seed the teams using the August 2014 FIFA ranking. Should they use the same approach, we're looking at the August 2018 edition. We're already in the last time frame (most recent 12 months).

Scheduled matches (including World Cup and play-offs) included as defeats.



 Rank - Team - Points

1 Mexico 796
2 Costa Rica 678
3 Honduras 659
4 USA 655
5 Panama 553
6 Trinidad and Tobago 434
7 Jamaica 386
8 Haiti 360
9 Canada 265
10 Curaçao 264
11 El Salvador 228
12 St. Kitts and Nevis 179
13 Guatemala 174
14 Nicaragua 171
15 Antigua and Barbuda 162
16 Suriname 154
17 Puerto Rico 101
18 Dominican Republic 84
19 Guyana 83
20 Grenada 74
21 Belize 71
22 Barbados 71
23 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 62
24 Dominica 58
25 Aruba 49
26 Cuba 48
27 St. Lucia 45
28 Bermuda 44
29 US Virgin Islands 18
30 Cayman Islands 9
31 British Virgin Islands 4
31 Montserrat 4
33 Bahamas 0
33 Turks and Caicos Islands 0
33 Anguilla 0

I know Guatemala are currently suspended, but I assume they'll solve their issues in time for the draw.

A team looking to reach the first group stage (pre-hex) should aim for a top 12 ranking.

The draw for the first two round should take place in early 2019.

First round

KO round.

Pot 1: Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Aruba, Cuba, St. Lucia, Bermuda
Pot 2: US Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, Anguilla

Second round

KO round.

The teams advancing from the 1st round will meet the teams ranked 9-15 (Pot 1 below) in the CONCACAF seeding, while teams ranked 16-18 (Pot 3 below) will play against teams ranked 19-21 (Pot 4).

Pot 1: Canada, Curaçao, El Salvador, St. Kitts and Nevis, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Antigua and Barbuda
Pot 2: 7 first round winners.

Pot 3: Suriname, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic
Pot 4: Guyana, Grenada, Belize

The draw for the remaining rounds should take place in the main qualifying draw.

Third round

KO round.

Pot 1: Jamaica, Haiti + top 4 winners from 2nd round
Pot 2: The other 6 winners

Fourth round

Group stage: 3 x 4 teams. Top two in each group advance to the hex.

Pot 1: Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras
Pot 2: USA, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago
Pot 3: 6 third round winners



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11 comments:

  1. SwedenOctober 19, 2017 at 1:06 AM

    If Sweden beats Italy, both home and away how many points will they have to next ranking?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousOctober 22, 2017 at 3:13 PM

      http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-tools/prognosis.html

      gives 1089 pts for 2 wins

      Delete
  2. Scott TurkingtonOctober 29, 2017 at 11:36 PM

    Is this the likely approach that CONCACAF will take? There has been a CONCACAF Nations League (similar to the UEFA version recently announced) mooted in order to increase activity in this region, especially amongst the lower ranked CFU teams. Supposedly, we'll hear more details on this before the end of 2017, so perhaps a different approach to World Cup qualifying is in the pipeline.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousOctober 30, 2017 at 10:58 AM

      is it really neccessary with the Concacaf Gold Cup on every 2 years and various regional cups whereas the Euros are every 4.

      Delete
    2. Scott TurkingtonOctober 31, 2017 at 1:51 AM

      The word is that they will move the Gold Cup to be every 4 years, presumably to enable the USA, Mexico etc. to play in the expanded 16 team Copa America. They will therefore schedule the Gold Cup to be in different years to that competition. The theory is to replace friendlies with competitive matches for the top teams in the region, and to simply get the relatively inactive teams playing more games against teams of a similar calibre.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousNovember 4, 2017 at 9:26 AM

    You could well be correct Scott. With Gold Cup plus expanded Copa America a CONCACAF League may not be as attractive to the USA and Mexico and I expect the USA would have to be in favour for it to go ahead. I agree more games for mid and bootom ranked teams may work but that could happen via expanding the regional competions (qualifiers and/or finals) those teams take part in or inviting a number of Central American teams as guest teams and expanding the Carribean cup finals to 8 or 16 teams.

    ReplyDelete
  4. turkey_niNovember 4, 2017 at 1:07 PM

    It'll certainly be interesting to find out. There's a few articles on this doing the rounds. Supposedly something has been agreed in principle, but exactly what that is remains unclear at present. We're due to find out by the end of 2017...

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-americas-league/exclusive-concacaf-close-to-agreeing-new-league-of-nations-idUSKBN1791QA

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousNovember 4, 2017 at 3:17 PM

    it sounds like we will hear very soon, and by the sound of it this could be happening in all confeds

    http://www.espnfc.com/blog/fifa/243/post/3251891/fifa-confederations-consider-new-global-nations-league

    ReplyDelete
  6. turkey_niNovember 4, 2017 at 7:29 PM

    Very interesting. I'd certainly be in favour of more competitive games as opposed to friendlies, although how this would fit into an already crowded schedule is anyone's guess...

    ReplyDelete
  7. turkey_niDecember 2, 2017 at 2:36 PM

    CONCACAF Nations League now confirmed. Full details to follow early next year.

    http://www.concacaf.com/article/concacaf-league-of-nations-confirmed

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousApril 10, 2018 at 11:56 PM

    Since Concacaf NL is going to be introduced, some terms in FIFA calendar have already been reserved for such new competition. March 2020 will be window for NL final 4. So, I guess all teams qualified for NL division 1 will be free of first 2 rounds. My assumption is after NL qualifiers (End of 2018 and March 2019) when all diviisions will be formed, the best six teams for qualifiers will get bye to 3rd round, while 6 teams from the latest hex will directly qualify for a 4th round.

    First round: KO. All FIFA members ranked 14-34 on Concacaf NL qualifying + Guatemala. 22 teams in total play in June 2019
    Second round: KO. 11 winners from the previous round joined by 13. ranked team from NL qualifying. 12 teams in total play in March 2020
    Third round: KO. 6 winners from the previous round joined by teams ranked 7-12 from NL qualifying (actually the best teams in qualifying since 2018 Hex teams did not compete in NL qualifying). To be played in June 2020
    Fourth round:GS. 6 winners from the previous round joined by 6 best ranked teams which played the latest Hex and skipped NL qualification. 12 teams will be divided in 3 groups by 4 teams. Matchdays will be Sep, Oct and Nov 2020
    Fifth round. Hex. All group winners and runners-up from the previous stage advance to this phase. 3 first placed teams qualify directly for Qatar 2022. Matchdays in the whole calendar 2021.
    Intercontinetal playoff: KO. 4th played team from the Hex play against representative from either OFC, AFC or CONMEBOL in March 2022.

    ReplyDelete