Following the withdrawal of several nations from the qualifiers for the 2022 Concacaf Women’s U17 Championship (CWU17C), the Lady Jaguars have been repositioned in Group-C of the event, set for October 20th-November 1st, at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL, USA.

This was confirmed by Concacaf via a press release. According to the correspondence, “Following the withdrawal of a number of teams due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, which resulted in an uneven number of teams per group, Concacaf has made the decision to reformat the tournament’s group stage to two groups of three teams and one group of four teams.”

Guyana has now been grouped with Honduras, Anguilla and Turks and Caicos Islands in Group-C. The Lady Jaguars were initially drawn in Group-D alongside Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia and Guadeloupe.

Meanwhile, the new look Group-A contains Saint Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, US Virgin Islands and Suriname, while Group-B comprises Barbados, Curaçao and Belize.

“At the end of group stage play, the winner of each group and the best ranked second place finisher will advance to the 2022 Concacaf Women’s U-17 Championship (CWU17). The ranking of the best second-place team will be determined using a weighted points system (total number of points divided by the number of matches played)”, the release stated.

The local U17 contingent of the programme, who is currently under the supervision of Akilah Castello, trains four days a week at the National Training Centre, Providence. Those days are usually Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The 2022 CWU17 is scheduled to take place in January. The top ranked 16 teams participating in the Group Stage of the Championship will be divided into four groups. After round-robin play, the top three teams in each group will advance to the Round of 16, joining the four teams from the Qualifiers.

A direct elimination format will decide the eventual winner of the tournament. Similarly, the winner, runner-up, and third place finisher will qualify for the 2022 FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup in India scheduled for October 11th-30th 2022.