An important milestone was reached by CONCACAF with respect to FIFA World Cup Qatar qualifiers on August 19th. The draws took place for the qualifying competitions on this day at the home of the headquarters of FIFA that is based in Zurich, Switzerland. Results and proceedings are available on the official YouTube page of FIFA as well as on their official website, FIFA.com.
Live streaming of the event was not available for certain territories and countries such as Bahrain, Comoros, Algeria, Djibouti, Iran, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Libya, Morocco, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, UAE, Tunisia, Palestine, and Yemen. Other channels that aired the event were www.telemundodeportes.com for countries US, Puerto Rico, and American Samoa as well as by www.beINsports.com.
As per the draw results, there would be 35 teams that would feature in the FIFA World Cup and for 3.5 slots to reach the World Cup. The results include the following countries in the respective group matches:
The first round would comprise of:
- Group A: Antigua and Barbuda, El Salvador, Montserrat, Grenada and US Virgin Islands.
- Group B: Suriname, Canada, Bermuda, Aruba, Cayman Islands.
- Group C: Guatemala, Curacao, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Cuba, British Virgin Islands.
- Group D: Panama, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Dominica, and Anguilla.
- Group E: Haiti, Belize, Nicaragua, St. Lucia, Turks, Caicos Islands.
- Group F: Trinidad, Tobago, St. Kitts, Guyana, Nevis, Puerto Rico, Bahamas.
Once the six groups of first-round have played they will then move to elimination format where 1A versus F will play and the winner will move to W1. 1B would contest 1E and the winner would move to W2. 1C will contest 1D and the winner will move to W3. The winners in these rounds then join the nations in the top five ranks. These are Honduras, Jamaica, Costa Rica, USA, and Mexico.