BRIDGETOWN, Barbados —The Caribbean Football Union (CFU) has announced that 25 of the 31 Members Associations will take part in the 2022 Boys’ U-14 Challenge Series scheduled for August 11-22, 2022.
The 2022 edition will be hosted entirely in the Dominican Republic.
“We are pleased to host the Challenge Series again this year, the third competition for boys since we started this tournament. We’ve seen the positive benefits of this initiative on our young players, not just as the introduction to international competition, but on their overall game and deportment. This is also a developmental competition, allowing Caribbean match officials and referees the chance to learn and to improve with a view to earning other appointments within the CFU and the wider football ecosystem,” CFU President Randolph Harris said.
The Challenge Series is held in alternate years for girls and boys. Last year, in a reemergence after Covid-19 disruptions, both competitions were held. Haiti captured both the boys’ and girls’ titles. Additionally, no fewer than 14 of the referees assigned to the matches were accepted onto the 2022 FIFA list, proving the merits of the Challenge Series.
To ensure balance and in keeping with the Member Associations’ request for fair and equitable groupings and taking into account team’s placement in the 2020 and 2018 editions, the teams are divided as follows:
Tier 1 (Group 1A): Bonaire; Curacao; Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico
Tier 1 (Group 1B): Aruba; Haiti; Jamaica; St. Kitts and Nevis
Tier II (Group 1): Bermuda; Guyana; St. Martin; Trinidad and Tobago
Tier II (Group 2): Barbados; Dominica; French Guiana; St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Tier II (Group 3): Cayman Islands; Grenada; Martinique; St. Lucia
Tier II (Group 4): Anguilla; British Virgin Islands; St. Maarten; Turks and Caicos Islands; US Virgin Islands
Competition Format
Teams in Tier I will play three matches in the group phase leading to cross-group quarterfinals; top two teams from each group advance to the semifinals with the winners playing for the championship. There are 19 Tier 1 matches.
Groups 1-3 in Tier II will play three matches in the group phases while Group 4 will play four matches, the top teams will advance to the Cross Group Playoffs, with the top four reaching the semifinals and the last two playing for the championship. There are 37 Tier II matches.
