CONCACAF pots announced for main draw

Cuba are the big winners of the somewhat foolish decision-making of CONCACAF, but who would expect anything else from the least organized of the six confederations? Whereas the other confederations will be applying the 27 July 2011 FIFA rankings to seed their teams for the 30 July 2011 FIFA World Cup qualifying draw, CONCACAF will use the March 2011 rankings it used to determine the ten participants in its first round of qualifiers. This completely ignores the continental showpiece tournament taking place right now, the Gold Cup, meaning that teams performing well in the tournament like Panama, Canada, and El Salvador will not be able to jump ahead of underperforming Cuba to grab the sixth and final bye into the third round. Furthermore, Cuba's development would have been better served by playing their Caribbean rivals in meaningful qualifiers rather than being given a bye in a third round in which they are unlikely to find success.

Pot 1 (Bye to third round)

1. United States

2. Mexico

3. Honduras

Pot 2 (Bye to third round)

4. Jamaica

5. Costa Rica

6. Cuba

Pot 3

Winners of second-round groups A, B, C, D, E, and F.

Pot 4 (Bye to second round)

7. Panama

8. Canada

9. El Salvador

10. Grenada

11. Trinidad and Tobago

12. Haiti

Pot 5 (Bye to second round)

13. Antigua and Barbuda

14. Guyana

15. Suriname

16. St. Kitts and Nevis

17. Guatemala

18. Dominica

Pot 6 (Bye to second round)

19. Puerto Rico

20. Barbados

21. Curacao

22. St. Vincent and the Grenadines

23. Cayman Islands

24. Nicaragua

Pot 7

25. Bermuda (bye to second round)

26./35. Belize/Montserrat

27./34. Dominican Republic/Anguilla

28./33. British Virgin Islands/U.S. Virgin Islands

29./32. St. Lucia/Aruba

30./31. Turks and Caicos Islands/Bahamas

For the second round, one team each from Pots 4, 5, 6, and 7 will be drawn into six groups of four teams each. The first-place team will advance to Pot 3.

For the third round, one team from Pots 1 and 2 and two teams from Pot 3 will be drawn into three groups of four. The top two teams from each group advance to the fourth round.

I wish that Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Saint-Martin were full FIFA members so that we could see how they would fare were they allowed to take part in FIFA World Cup qualifying, but that must wait for a later edition of the world's premiere tournament.

At a glance, it appears that the six teams in Pot 4 would be the teams that advance to Pot 3 from the second round groups. However, if Guatemala or Suriname from Pot 5 were to get a favorable draw such as Grenada or Haiti, they could advance to Pot 3.