March 13 – With the closure of the inaugural Concacaf W Gold Cup on Sunday in San Diego, the regional governing body has rolled straight into the next stage of its women’s competition development programme with the launch of the Concacaf W Champions Cup, its first official women’s continental club championship.
An annual competition, the first 11-team W Champions Cup will kick off this August will be the qualification route of the Women’s Club World Cup. FIFA has yet to unveil the dates, format and host for that launch.
For the first edition clubs will qualify via domestic leagues based on sporting merit with Concacaf ratifying that the clubs meet the criteria.
The qualification slots by nation have been allocated as follows:
- Canada: 1 club in Preliminary Round*
- Costa Rica: 1 club in Group Stage
- El Salvador: 1 club in Preliminary Round*
- Jamaica: 1 club in Group Stage
- Mexico: 3 clubs in Group Stage
- Panama: 1 club in Group Stage
- USA: 3 clubs in Group Stage
“Launching the Concacaf W Champions Cup is a very exciting next step on our journey of developing all aspects of women’s football in our region,” said Concacaf president Victor Montagliani.
“When we launched our Concacaf W women’s football strategy in 2019 we focused on creating an enhanced calendar of national team competitions that benefited all of our Member Associations, and on providing opportunities for women and girls to develop a passion for football at all levels of the sport. We have made significant progress in those areas, albeit with much work more to do, and the growth of leagues and clubs is an important next phase in our strategy.”
The preliminary round will see the Canadian and El Salvador clubs play-off for the final place in the group stage. Preliminary and the five-team group stage matches will be scheduled for August, September, and October 2024.
Clubs will play four group games each, two home and two away.
The top two teams in each group will qualify for the semi-finals, third place match and final in May 2025, to be played at a centralised venue.
The draw preliminary round and groups will take place in June.
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