CONCACAF facing World Cup qualifying overhaul

MEXICO CITY - The World Cup qualifying format for the North American, Central American and Caribbean Football Confederation (CONCACAF) could be overhauled because of the coronavirus pandemic, the region's top football official said on Wednesday.

The sport's shutdown is likely to scupper plans to stage a final qualifying round featuring the region's six top-ranked teams because of a lack of space in the international football calendar, according to CONCACAF chief Victor Montagliani.

"I think on the balance of probabilities in terms of what has happened so far, and what likely will continue to happen, the current World Cup format will have to be changed," Montagliani said in an interview with Canada's Onesoccer website.

"That means that ultimately the 'Hex' will have to be changed into some other form."

The top six CONCACAF teams in the FIFA rankings are currently Mexico, the United States, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Honduras and El Salvador. Canada are ranked seventh.

Montagliani did not elaborate about the possible new structure of the qualifying tournament, but admitted more teams would have the chance to secure a berth at football's showpiece tournament in Qatar in 2022.

"Obviously it will be bigger, but what that number is I don't know until we have a calendar," he said.

"Until we know from FIFA how many windows we have, it's going to be very hard for me to say it's going to be this, that or the other. Because even on some of the modelling that my competitions guys are working on in their basements right now, depending on what this calendar looks like, whatever you've thought of you might have to redo that."