SOCCER: 2018 Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship Kicks Off Monday

The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) reminds media that the third edition of the Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship is scheduled to kick off monday and will be played August 6-13, at the at the world-renowned IMG Academy campus in Bradenton, Florida.

The expanded Girls’ Under-15 Championship, which will provide access to international football for over 500 girls from across the Concacaf region, will be disputed in two rounds. For the first-round group phase, the twenty-eight participating teams have been ranked and divided into two divisions, ensuring sporting balance and a minimum number of four matches for each participating team.

Division one will be made up by the top ten ranked teams from Concacaf, in addition to Portugal and Northern Ireland. This division will be composed of three groups of four teams. After round robin play, the top finishers of each group as well as the overall best second place finisher will advance to the semifinals. The semifinal winners will advance to the final.

Division two will be composed of the remaining sixteen teams, divided into four groups of four. After round robin play, teams will play an additional match for final placement in the competition.

In addition to the Concacaf Girls’ U-15 Championship, in 2018 the Confederation has hosted a range of important women’s events including the Women’s Under-20 and Under-17 Championships.  In October, the United States will celebrate the Concacaf Women’s Championship, which qualifies Confederation teams to the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

In total, nearly two-thousand female athletes will participate in Concacaf championships this year across the region. Centralized tournaments such as the Girls’ Under-15 Championship and regional qualifying tournaments in the Caribbean and Central America are core to the One Concacaf Vision of providing access to more quality football for more Concacaf athletes.

The developmental tournament will feature the participation of twenty-six teams from North, Central America and the Caribbean, and two guest teams from UEFA