A Big Month Ahead - September 2012

September preview - Caribbean Cup 2012 and European World Cup qualifiers

September sees competitive action for two of our teams as Montserrat take the field in the Caribbean Cup first qualifying round, while San Marino begin their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign

.

The Caribbean Cup finals are set to take place in Antigua & Barbuda in December with 8 teams taking part, and the top four going on to reach the following year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup.  Hosts Antigua & Barbuda, plus holders Jamaica, are automatic qualifiers leaving six spots remaining.   Two rounds of qualification will sort all that out.

 Montserrat enter in the first round in a group alongside Martinique, Suriname and British Virgin Islands.  The group winner will progress, as will four of the second placed teams from the five first round groups. 

Montserrat’s group will be hosted by Martinique, whose population size alone makes them firm favourites to progress through.  It does throw up a slight anomaly too, in that being an overseas territory of France, Martinique are not members of FIFA in their own right.  So Montserrat’s fixture against Martinique will not count towards the world rankings.

Hopes aren’t exactly high, but British Virgin Islands are a similarly tiny country so the final group game with them is perhaps the most intriguing from a World’s Worst point of view.

Montserrat’s fixtures are as follows:

5^th September   v. Suriname (world rank 135)

7^th September   v. Martinique (no world ranking)

9^th September   v. British Virgin Islands (world rank 191)

Also in action in September are San Marino who begin their latest ass-whipping campaign in the European section of World Cup qualification.

11^th September v. Montenegro