The likelihood of international matches of any kind in September is “not very high,” said Victor Montagliani, president of Concacaf, which governs the sport in North and Central America and the Caribbean.

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FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, recently formed a working group to look into changing the international windows for World Cup qualifiers and other competitions.

Montagliani told reporters during a conference call that Concacaf is looking into “the possibilities and probabilities, if this calendar is going to change, how is it going to change and how will that affect the format of the World Cup qualifying, which in likelihood will happen. We have more questions than answers because we just don’t know what that will be.”

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Under current guidelines, the six regional teams ranked highest by FIFA are slated to play one another home and away for a total of 10 matches apiece between this September and June 2021.

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Three would earn automatic berths to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and a fourth would enter a playoff against the winner of a second-tier regional competition in fall 2021. That survivor would advance to an international playoff in spring 2022.

The World Cup will not take place until November and December 2022 because of oppressive heat in Qatar in the summer. Still, Montagliani said, calendar issues are “piling up at our doorstep. We may have to look at reformatting how this looks like. Whether it’s a [hexagonal] or some other shape that is part of a kid’s block set, I don’t know. We just don’t know what this thing is going to look like until we know what the [FIFA] calendar is going to look like and how this calendar fits into our entire ecosystem.”

Although World Cup qualifying is the most visible competition, “we have to treat all our children equally,” Montagliani said. " … My responsibility is for all 41 [member nations]. If the format needs to change, then it needs to change.”

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Concacaf also must reschedule qualifiers for the 2021 Gold Cup and the last phase of the inaugural Nations League, whose semifinals, third-place game and final were to have been held June 4-7 at three Texas venues and serve as the last tuneups before World Cup qualifying.

The recent cancellations have stalled the process of naming the teams involved in those qualifiers. Mexico, Costa Rica, the United States, Honduras and Jamaica are certain. Canada was pinning its thin hopes of overtaking El Salvador on friendlies in March against Trinidad and Tobago.

Without games in March and June, the Canadian-born Montagliani said, there is a “little bit of an integrity issue” in locking in the current six teams.

Before Concacaf can begin thinking about international matches, domestic leagues must resume. Even if some leagues restart in August, Montagliani said, “is it realistic or fair to start calling players in two to three weeks after they are back in with their clubs” to play in September?

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When international games do resume, he said, “the likelihood of the first matches being without fans is probably high. … It’s unrealistic to think you get the green flag and all of a sudden we are all rushing into an arena watching matches or concerts.”

Travel also will pose obstacles for international competition because some countries will have better health conditions than others. Travel across borders, Montagliani said, is probably the last thing to gain clearance.

“We all want it to start tomorrow,” he said. “But the reality is we need to be prudent here and understand the most important thing is the health of our citizens. We need to be realistic in terms of when [soccer] will come back, and it will only come back when the health authorities say we are in position to have it come back.”

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Also, Montagliani said the vote to choose the 2023 Women’s World Cup location, initially scheduled for June, might take place in September. The candidates are a joint bid of Australia and New Zealand; Japan; Brazil; and Colombia. (Montagliani is a member of the FIFA Council.)