MIAMI (AP) — The winners of the 2013 and 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cups will meet in a one-game playoff for a berth in the 2017 FIFA Confederation Cup.
The winners of the 2003, 2007 and 2011 tournaments, the championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean, had qualified for the FIFA event. That resulted in less attention paid to the 2005 and 2009 Gold Cups.
New CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb said Friday the change “is an essential and perhaps long due adjustment.”
Some Gold Cup teams have used weaker rosters in the year preceding a World Cup, giving their Europe-based players time off between World Cup qualifiers in June and the start of club seasons in late summer.
