IMG Academy to Host 2018 Concacaf Central America Women’s Qualifier

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The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) announced today that IMG Academy will host the 2018 Concacaf Central America Women’s Qualifier, scheduled to be played August 27-31, 2018.

The regional qualifier, to be disputed between Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama, in a round-robin format, will qualify the two top finishers to the 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship.

Originally scheduled to take place in Nicaragua, Concacaf announced on Wednesday, June 6, 2018 the decision to relocate the competition, following an extensive security assessment, which included an independent third-party report of the country’s sociopolitical landscape in recent months.

The United States will welcome the region’s top women’s national teams for the 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship, which will crown a regional champion and qualify three teams directly for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019, plus the fourth-place finisher to an intercontinental playoff versus Argentina. The Women’s Championship is scheduled to be played October 4-17, 2018 in Cary, NC, Edinburg, Texas, and Frisco, Texas.

As part of a year of women’s football in Concacaf, which includes the expanded Girls’ Under-15 Championship, and the Women’s Under-17 and Under-20 Championship, the Women’s Championship Qualifiers will provide access to top level international football to 26 Concacaf Member Associations. This includes over 300 players, thus enhancing an excellent opportunity for development and growth of the women’s game in the region. In total, nearly 2000 female athletes will participate in the Concacaf championships this year across the region.