By Rawle Toney
Guyana has been drawn in Group ‘A’ of the (Feb 20 – 26) 2017 Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Beach Soccer Championship alongside host Bahamas, Jamaica and Belize, following today’s draw at the Intercontinental Hotel in Doral, Florida, USA.
President of the Guyana Beach Soccer Association, Rollan Tappin and Coach Abdullah ‘Zico’ Hamid, represented the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) at the draw which determined the groups and match schedule for the tournament that kicks off on February 20, in Nassau, Bahamas.
In Group B, defending CONCACAF Beach Soccer champion Mexico was joined by Guatemala, Canada and Guadeloupe, while United States, Trinidad & Tobago, Antigua & Barbuda and US Virgin Islands make up Group C. El Salvador will be in Group D with Costa Rica, Panama and Turks & Caicos Islands.
The Malcom Beach Soccer Facility will host all group, quarter-final, semi-final, third place and final matches. The champion and the runner-up of the competition will join host Bahamas as the three CONCACAF representatives in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2017. In case Bahamas (host of the World Cup) and/or Guadeloupe (Non-FIFA Member) reach the final match, the World Cup spot(s) will be allocated to the next best placed team(s).
In an effort to further develop Beach Soccer, each one of the sixteen participating Member Associations are guaranteed to play six games, with all competing for final tournament placement, until the last match date. For the draw, the Participating Member Associations were separated into pots of four balls according to the Beach Soccer World Wide Ranking dated September 2016.
The draw started by selecting from a separate pot, which contained the five teams with the same exact ranking (38).
These teams were drawn and placed into Pots 3 and 4 respectively to complete the distribution of the teams into those Pots. The teams were then drawn into the four groups, from those final pots of four teams each.
CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship Bahamas 2017 Groups
Group A Bahamas Jamaica Belize Guyana
Group B Mexico Guatemala Canada Guadeloupe
Group C United States Trinidad & Tobago Antigua & Barbuda US Virgin Islands
Group D El Salvador Costa Rica Panama Turks & Caicos Islands
CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship Bahamas 2017 Schedule
*Kick Off times TBC
Monday, February 20, 2017
Guatemala v Canada
Mexico v Guadeloupe
Trinidad & Tobago v Antigua & Barbuda
United States v US Virgin Islands
Jamaica v Belize Bahamas v Guyana
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Costa Rica v Panama
El Salvador v Turks & Caicos Islands
Guadeloupe v Guatemala
Canada v Mexico
Guyana v Jamaica
Belize v Bahamas
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
US Virgin Islands v Trinidad & Tobago
Antigua & Barbuda v United States
Turks & Caicos Islands v Costa Rica
Panama v El Salvador
Belize v Guyana Bahamas v Jamaica
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Canada v Guadeloupe
Mexico v Guatemala
Antigua & Barbuda v US Virgin Islands
United States v Trinidad & Tobago
Panama v Turks & Caicos Islands
El Salvador v Costa Rica
Friday, February 24, 2017
4B v 4D
4A v 4C
3B v 3D
3A v 3C
*TBC v TBC – Quarter-Final #1
*TBC v TBC – Quarter-Final #2
*TBC v TBC – Quarter-Final #3
*TBC v TBC – Quarter-Final #4
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Loser Match 25 v Loser Match 26
Winner Match 25 v Winner Match 26
Loser Match 27 v Loser Match 28
Winner Match 27 v Winner Match 28
Loser Match 29 v Loser Match 30
Loser Match 31 v Loser Match 32
Winner Match 29 v Winner Match 30 – Semifinal
Winner Match 31 v Winner Match 32 – Semifinal
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Loser Match 33 v Loser Match 34 – 15th Place
Match Winner Match 33 v Winner Match 34 – 13th Place
Match Loser Match 35 v Loser Match 36 – 11th Place
Match Winner Match 35 v Winner Match 36 – 9th Place
Match Loser Match 37 v Loser Match 38 – 7th Place
Match Winner Match 37 v Winner Match 38 – 5th Place
Match Loser Match 39 v Loser Match 40 – 3rd Place
Match Winner Match 39 v Winner Match 40 – Final
*The top two teams from each Group will advance to the knock-out phase. The quarter-final match ups will be decided by a draw. Group winners will be matched up randomly with the second place teams.
