March 24 – With five days to go before the 16-team 2015 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship in El Salvador kicks off, official rosters have been announced. A month ago, CONCACAF gathered the head coaches of the national teams for a four-day technical workshop in Florida.
The confederation has placed an emphasis on the development of Beach Soccer throughout the region under development director Hugo Salcedo, who also has plans for the introduction of a beach soccer coaching license to build the depth of expertise in the region.
The El Salvador tournament, to be played on the Costa del Sol March 28 to April 4 is the first time CONCACAF has had a 16 team finals. The championship has been played five times with the US and Mexico each winning twice and El Salvador once.
CONCACAF nations, particularly El Savador the US and Mexico, have been strong contenders at Beach Soccer World Cups in the past and the confederation believes that there is a latent talent, particularly in the Caribbean region, that could develop world class contenders.
The Bahamas hosted the 2013 CONCACAF championships and in 2017 will host the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.
Qualifying groups for the 2015 championship are:
Group A: El Salvador, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Belize.
Group B: Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, Guadeloupe, and the Turks & Caicos
Group C: United States, Bahamas, Barbados, and Antigua & Barbuda.
Group D: Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The teams will play a round-robin stage in the groups with the top two teams from each group going through to the knockout rounds. The finalists will qualify for the 2015 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup to be played in Portugal in July.
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