The Golden Jaguars path to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar was confirmed yesterday as they were officially drawn by regional confederation in group-F in the first round of the Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers.
Guyana was paired alongside Caribbean giant and traditional rival Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts and Nevis, Puerto Rico and The Bahamas.
The Golden Jaguars will commence their campaign away to Trinidad and Tobago on October 8th before matching skills at home with The Bahamas five days later. Similarly, Marcio Maximo’s charges will travel to St. Kitts and Nevis on November 13th, before concluding the first round campaign at home against Puerto Rico on November 17th.
Guyana’s best attempt to qualify for the prestigious FIFA World Cup occurred in the 2014 qualifiers when they secured a berth to the third stage of the qualifying round, which is the penultimate section of the confederation’s qualification process.
According to a release from the GFF, President Wayne Forde said, “We know this will not be an easy campaign but we’re up to this task. We have a few weeks; if the October window remains open, we have a few weeks to prepare, we’re trusting that the COVID-19 situation can be brought under control and we can get our national team back into training. We take this opportunity to ask our stakeholders, corporate Guyana, Government of Guyana – once we complete our preparation plan – to come on board and give us all the support that they can to make all of Guyana proud and to give football the opportunity to bring this beautiful nation together at this opportune time.”
Newly appointed Minister of Sport Charles Ramson Jr., pledged the support of the government during this campaign.
“We want to be able to promote football in Guyana as part of the Government’s programme, working in a collaborative way. Sport is important to the President of Guyana, sport is important to me and we don’t only want to say it, we want to show it and that’s why I wanted to make the time to be here with you when Guyana is being drawn and to know where it’s going to play. You can expect to hear from me just as much as I expect to hear from you and, in as much as we can do, you can expect that as well. There’s a lot of things we’re facing at the moment but we are willing to explore innovative ways for partnership; we will work in a collaborative way, once the objective is to showcase Guyanese talent and develop Guyanese talent.”
Analysis of the groups indicate that Guyana was drawn in the pool with the second highest FIFA and Concacaf median ranking. Trinidad and Tobago is the highest ranked in the group at 105th followed by St. Kitts and Nevis (139th), Guyana (166th), Puerto Rico (178th) and The Bahamas (195th). This equates to a FIFA and Concacaf median ranking of 156.6 and 20 respectively.
Group-A, which contains El Salvador (69th), Antigua and Barbuda (126th), Grenada (159th), Montserrat (183rd) and US Virgin Islands (207th), enjoys the highest FIFA and Concacaf median ranking of 148.8 and 19.2 respectively.
Canada (73rd), Suriname (141st), Bermuda (168th), Cayman Islands (193rd) and Aruba (200th) make up group-B and have a FIFA and Concacaf average rating of 155 and 20.8 apiece. Meanwhile, group-C holds a FIFA and Concacaf medium ranking of 152.8 and 20.4 correspondingly, following the selection of Curacao (80th), Guatemala (130th), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (167th), Cuba (179th) and British Virgin Islands (208th).
Similarly, group-D consisting of Panama (81st), Dominican Republic (158th), Barbados (162nd), Dominica (184th) and lowest ranked team in the world Anguilla (210th) has an average FIFA and Concacaf rating of 159 and 21.6 respectively.
Lastly, group-E has a FIFA and Concacaf median ranking of 157.2 and 21. The teams which feature in this pool are Haiti (86th), Nicaragua (151st), Belize (170th), St Lucia (176th) and Turks and Caicos (203rd).
The draw, which was online, featured the federation’s 30 lowest ranked nations vying for an opportunity to secure one of the coveted 3.5 qualifying berths assigned to the region. Due to the ongoing pandemic, Concacaf has opted to alter the qualification process, which will comprise only three rounds. The teams were seeded based on the FIFA World Ranking of 16th July 2020.
The second round will feature the respective group winners battling in a home-and-away series during the March 2021 match window, with the three victors progressing 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.
