Final Round Qualification Moves To Costa Rica

25.09.2003 – CONCACAF announced today that the 2004 CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualification Final Round has been relocated from Mexico to Costa Rica, and it will now take place from 25 February – 7 March. The CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualifying Finals will remain in Mexico as it is slated for 2-12 February 2004.



“We are very pleased that Costa Rica will have the opportunity to host this important competition,” said CONCACAF General Secretary Chuck Blazer. “Women’s Football in Costa Rica has always enjoyed strong support and has been one of the major footholds of the sport in our region. Bringing this tournament there both solves the logistical issues of running both the men’s and women’s tournament at the same time while having a great new venue for this competition.”



The shift of venue gives Costa Rica a bye from competing in the CONCACAF Olympic preliminaries as they now join Canada in Group A of the Final Round, while the USA has also earned a bye as they placed in Group B.



Costa Rica was originally scheduled to host a preliminary three-team competition (with Honduras, Nicaragua), but now Mexico takes their place in the round-robin qualifying event that will be held in Honduras from 10-14 December 2003.



The remaining qualifying preliminaries will feature two more three-team competitions as Guatemala host Panama and Belize from 19-23 November, while the Cayman Islands greet Jamaica and US Virgin Islands from 3-7 December. Completing the opening round will be two home-and-home series that have Haiti meeting Dominican Republic on 26 October and 9 November, while Suriname faces Trinidad & Tobago on the 9 and 12 November.



The five preliminary qualifiers (winners from the home-and-home and three-team competitions) will join Canada, Costa Rica and USA in the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Final Round for two berths to the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Greece.