CONCACAF changes

CONCACAF changed the way that youth teams must qualify to international tournaments today. In the past the North Region of CONCACAF (Canada, USA and Mexico) received a bye to the final round of CONCACAF qualifying, while the Caribbean and Central America regions were forced into a semi-final stage.

The seven Central American teams will join the three northern teams to compete for five slots in the final stage. The Caribbean will continue to qualify three teams into the final eight, which has typically seen two groups of four teams compete.

The North - Central round format has yet to be determined, although two groups of five, with the top two in each group qualifying and the two third place teams playing for the final spot would seem to make sense.

The new format will begin immediately, although there will be some changes to the 2011 sub-17 format as Mexico is in the tournament already as the host.

It's probably good news for the Canadian set-up as it will provide more games for the youth teams. Even though they run the risk of missing the final stage from time to time, there is no reason why that should worry Canada. Typically, the Canadian youth teams are competitive enough to get through a Central American qualifier (although one of Costa Rica, Honduras or Canada is bound to be the odd team out more often than not).

The bottom line, as always, is that if the team can't get by nations of that stature in sub-qualifying rounds, it doesn't really deserve its place in the final round anyway.