The Trinidad & Tobago women’s football team will have to wait even longer to participate in the CONCACAF Women Qualifiers as it was announced by CONCACAF on Friday that the tournament will now begin in February 2022 instead of November.
CONCACAF has agreed that the scheduling change was made because of the challenges associated with travel into certain countries in the region due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The committee believes this decision was made in the best interests of the tournament, players, and officials.
These qualifiers are the first stage of an important year of women’s football in the region. Next year will also include the CONCACAF Women Championship, the CONCACAF Women’s U-20 and U-17 competitions as well as the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Costa Rica.
The Women Warriors who started training months ago will have adequate time to regroup as a team following the surprising resignation of former head coach James Thomas a week ago after being appointed only in April.
Thomas’ decision to depart the twin-island team was based on receiving a better offer at Bristol City Women as the Women and Girls Youth Development Manager. The Welshman is likely to accept a multi-year contract from his new employers.
The team will now be led temporarily by assistant coach Charlie Mitchell who will run the team’s training sessions while the TTFA explores its options to appoint a head coach. Prior to the announcement of the postponement, it was also confirmed by the TTFA that the Women Warriors will play two friendly international matches in the October window at the Ato Boldon Stadium after receiving permission from the Ministry of Health to stage the matches.
The CONCACAF Groups are as follows:
Group A: Mexico, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Antigua and Barbuda and Anguilla
Group B: Costa Rica, Guatemala, Saint Kitts and Nevis, US Virgin Islands, and Curacao
Group C: Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Bermuda, Grenada and Cayman Islands
Group D: Panama, El Salvador, Barbados, Belize and Aruba
Group E: Haiti, Cuba, Honduras, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and British Virgin Islands
Group F: Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, Nicaragua, Dominica and Turks and Caicos
Each team will play two home and two away matches in a single round-robin format. The six group winners will advance to the final CONCACAF tournament which takes place in July 2022. They will be joining USA and Canada who have qualified already based on their World Rankings.
