CONCACAF’s road to South Africa 2010 begins next month

CONCACAF.com • The road for CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) teams to the FIFA World Cup™ South Africa 2010 begins next month after the official unveiling, today, by FIFA of the first-leg encounters in the Stage 1 home-and-away elimination series.



The CONCACAF World Cup Qualification kicks off on 3 February 2008, with Bermuda hosting Cayman Islands at the National Sports Centre in Hamilton.



The first-leg encounters continue on 6 February with six more match-ups starting with Dominica taking on Barbados at the Windsor Park Stadium in Roseau, while Aruba face Antigua & Barbuda at the Centro Deportivo Guillermo Trinidad in Oranjestad.



Elsewhere, Turks & Caicos Islands will be hosting their first ever CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying game at the Providenciales’ National Stadium when they meet St. Lucia, while Belize will be the home team when they play against St. Kitts & Nevis at the Estadio Mateo Flores in Guatemala City.



Also on 6 February, El Salvador and Nicaragua will be hosting Anguilla and Netherlands Antilles at San Salvador’s Estadio Cuscatlan and Estadio Cacique Diriangen in Diriamba, respectively.



Rounding out the first-leg Stage 1 encounters will be the British Virgin Islands who visit the Bahamas at the BFA National Centre in Nassau on 26 March.



FIFA also announced that three originally scheduled Stage 1 Match-ups will no longer be played as a home-and-away series but as a single elimination game due to several National Associations not meeting the new FIFA Stadium standards and being unable to secure a home venue.



The single elimination match-ups between Puerto Rico – Dominican Republic, Grenada – US Virgin Islands, and Montserrat – Surinam will take place during the second-leg encounters for Stage 1 in late March.



The remaining fixtures for the second-leg encounters for Stage 1 of CONCACAF World Cup Qualification scheduled for 26-30 March will be unveiled in due course. The winners of Stage 1 will join the remaining 13 teams in Stage 2 of CONCACAF Qualification set for June. (COMPLETE SCHEDULE)



The top three teams from the CONCACAF Final Round in 2009 will automatically qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. CONCACAF’s fourth place finisher will play off with CONMEBOL’s fifth-place team in a home-and-away series for one of the last berths to the FIFA event.