Bermuda to discover qualifying opponents - Royal Gazette

Bermuda men’s national team have been giving an indication who they may face in the Concacaf World Cup qualifying stage after the draw details were released this week.

The draw, which will take place on Wednesday, will decide the fixtures for the first round of qualifying, as the region’s top 35 ranked nations begin their quest for a place at the World Cup, taking place in Qatar in 2022.

The first round, consisting of 30 teams will be played between the Concacaf member Associations ranked sixth to 35th based on the Fifa rankings as of July 16, this year. Bermuda are ranked 22nd.

Teams will be drawn into six groups of five in a seeded draw. The six highest ranked teams, El Salvador, Canada, Curaçao, Panama, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago, who are pot one, will be pre-seeded into groups.

Bermuda have been placed in pot three alongside Grenada, Barbados, Guyana, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Belize.

While avoiding the teams in their own pot, Kyle Lightbourne’s side will be guaranteed to face one of the powerhouses from pot one as well as one nation from each of the remaining three pots including sides such as Antigua and Barbuda, Guatemala, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Bahamas and Aruba.

Each team will play every other team in their group once, playing a total of four matches; two home and two away. These games will be played in the Fifa international windows of October and November this year.

At the end of the first round the six group winners will progress to the second round.

There, teams will play home and away in a direct elimination format in March, with the three winners progressing to the final round.

The final round will see those three teams join the Concacaf member Associations top-five ranked teams consisting of Mexico, United States, Costa Rica, Jamaica and Honduras.

The eight teams will play each other home and away, with the top three finishing teams qualifying directly to the World Cup. The fourth-placed team will qualify for the Intercontinental Play-off, scheduled to be played in June 2022.

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