The Caribbean has a big chance to see one of its teams at the next World Cup, thanks to a format change that will see more countries than ever take part in the 2026 tournament.
The next tournament will be jointly hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada – meaning those three teams will qualify automatically.
And, with the expansion from 32 to 48 teams, there are still a possible four more places up for grabs for countries in the Americas region. Three will go through automatically and the fourth place finisher will go to a qualifying play-off.
Overall, the changes mean there will be definitely be three additional places for the Americas region, opening the door to a much wider variety of teams.
And with the three biggest nations granted a free ride to the finals, the qualification process is likely to be more competitive than ever.
Cayman’s relative size and recent performances suggest breaching the gap to make the biggest sporting show on the planet may be a step too far.
But the chances of the Caribbean providing one or more of the qualifying teams is massively enhanced. Jamaica and Trinidad, the two teams from the region to have qualified most recently, in 1998 and 2006, will be among the favourites.
Haiti and Cuba, the only two other regional teams to have ever reached the World Cup finals, will also have a chance.
Jamaica is currently the top ranked Caribbean team, ahead of Curacao, Haiti, Trinidad and Antigua in the pecking order. Cayman is ranked 19th in the region.
Central American strength
The biggest rivalry will come from the traditional Central American powerhouses.
Costa Rica, who qualified for the last World Cup and performed admirably to beat Japan and scare Germany after a shocking 7-0 defeat to Spain in their opening fixture, is one of the stronger teams in the region. Panama, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala are all
highly ranked.
Nonetheless, Alfredo Whittaker, president of the Cayman Islands Football Association, who just returned from Qatar after taking in 22 games at the finals, believes the expansion of the World Cup could allow one or more Caribbean qualifiers to make it.
“This upcoming World Cup is a great opportunity for a number of teams from the Caribbean,” he said. “Not just Jamaica and Trinidad, but Bermuda and a couple of others as well, but they need to start working on it from yesterday.”
For Cayman, currently ranked 194th in the world, he accepts a position in the final 48 is unlikely.
“Our focus is currently on trying to qualify for the Gold Cup,” he said.
Cayman Islands Football Association general secretary Marcos Tinoco, who was also in Qatar for much of the World Cup, sees opportunity for Caribbean teams in the expansion of the tournament.
He said the performances of Morocco, Costa Rica, Australia, Japan and others at the World Cup showed that teams from non-traditional football powerhouse regions – albeit from countries with larger populations – could succeed against the best in the world.
Caribbean getting left behind
But Tinoco fears the Caribbean region is standing still while other countries, including qualification rivals in central and North America, improve.
“I don’t think the Caribbean lacks talent or passion for the game; what is needed at first is more professionalism,” he said.
“We need strong domestic football from grassroots level to seniors, professional coaches, organised clubs and more sponsors. All these together will make the game more attractive to our people, players will be better prepared to go overseas and will make better national teams.”
He said professionalism was about attitude as much as salary.
Despite the broader field of teams, both Whittaker and Tinoco argue that greater investment in developing the game is needed for the Caribbean to keep up.
“It looks like the Caribbean has not moved since 2006, and the changes must start now,” said Tinoco.
“It will take another 10 years to be able to compete fairly against Mexico, USA, Canada, Costa Rica, Panama and Honduras. It is time to move fast in the Caribbean, otherwise it will be very difficult to qualify for the next two World Cups.”
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