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CONCACAF (the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) governs football in North America, Central America and the Caribbean. Guyana and Suriname and French Guiana are also members of this association.
The association came into being in 1961 having affiliation with FIFA. Its role is to organize competitions among national teams and clubs besides conducting World Cup qualifying tournaments.
CONCACAF FEDERATION
When the association was formed for the first time, it was known as the CONCACAF Championship. But, since 1990, the name was changed to CONCACAF Gold Cup. So far 19 tournaments have been held and seven nations have emerged as champions so far with Mexico being the most successful team. It won the tournament seven times.
Prior to 1963, there were two separate competitions, the CCCF (Central America and most of the Caribbean) Championship and the NAFC (United States, Mexico, Canada, and Cuba) Championship. This was later merged to form the CONCACAF.
CONCACAF GOLD CUP
The latest CONCACAF Gold Cup was played in the United States from June 6 to June 24, 2007. The tournament was won by the host country and beat Mexico in the finals. Canada and Guadeloupe shared the third spot. The US is the second most successful team in the CONCACAF tournament.
US won the title four times followed by Costa Rica which won it three times. The other champions are Canada with two titles, and Honduras, Haiti, Guatemala with one title each.
CONCACAF UNDER 20
The CONCACAF Under-20 tournament is considered to be the second longest running international football tournament in North America, Central America and the Caribbean region.
The winners automatically qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. Between 1962 to 1996, the association has staged a total of 16 Under-20 Tournaments.
Out of these tournaments, 11 of the CONCACAF tournaments were considered to be qualifiers to the FIFA World Youth Championship.
Since 1998, the U-20 CONCACAF event turned out to be the final qualification round having two groups of four teams each. They play a single round-robin tournament format. The top two teams from each group qualify for FIFA U-20 World Cup.
MLS SOCCER
The 12th Major League Soccer season which began on April 7, 2007 will end with the MLS Cup 2007 on November 18 at the RFK Stadium in the US. Major events of this year's MLS Cup are signing David Beckham for Los Angeles.
David Beckham made his first appearance with the team on July 21 in an exhibition against Chelsea F.C. Another major even in the MLS was the signing of two New York Red Bulls players Juan Pablo Angel from Aston Villa F.C. and Claudio Reyna from Manchester City F.C. |
