April 26 – Concacaf has committed to setting up its first international competition for women’s clubs with a start date in 2024.
Concacaf said the competition will be the “sole” pathway to FIFA’s planned Women’s Club World Cup competition that was announced last December.
UEFA and Conmebol both have fast-establishing women’s club competitions, and the AFC has run test events with the aim of progressing to a regional Women’s club competition. While Concacaf has frequently led the women’s game and has revamped its women’s national team competition calendar, the new club competition will fill a gap in its portfolio.
The decision was taken by Concacaf Council at a meeting Tuesday.
Two of Concacaf’s nations, the US and Mexico, have growing professional women’s leagues (NWSL and Liga MX Femenil) while Canada is pushing towards a professional club set up either via state teams or a proposed new club league.
With most of the Concacaf nations drawing their national team players from domestic clubs and competitions (Concacaf has six nations qualified for this summer’s Women’s World Cup), an international club competition is a clear next step to develop the women’s game and local talent.
Concacaf president Victor Montagliani, said: “The ongoing growth and development of women’s football is a major priority for Concacaf. Since we launched our Concacaf W strategy in 2019, we have enhanced our women’s national team calendar and delivered tremendous competitions which are driving development across the region.
“The next phase of our strategy is to focus on a women’s club platform and, while there remains work to be done on the detail, this is a very important step towards the launch of an exciting new competition next year.”
Concacaf said that detail will be released later this year, once more information becomes available on the format and slot allocation for the new Women’s Club World Cup.
Concacaf has revamped its women’s national team calendar for 2021-2024 with new women’s national team competitions include the Concacaf W Qualifiers and W Championship, and the upcoming Road to W Gold Cup and the inaugural Concacaf W Gold Cup which is scheduled for February and March 2024.
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