NEW YORK: The CONCACAF Gold Cup, the championship for national teams of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, will be played outside the USA for the first time in a decade as the venues for the seventh edition of the tournament were recently announced by General Secretary Chuck Blazer.

The 2003 edition of the Confederation’s signature event will be played in three cities from July 12-27 — Foxboro, Massachusetts and Miami, Florida in the USA, as well as in Mexico City, where the tournament saw matches played in 1993. Twelve teams will again take part, including two guest teams from CONMEBOL, the South American confederation: 2002 FIFA World Cup champion Brazil, and 2001 Copa America champion Colombia. “When the Gold Cup was returned to the summer months, the goal was to bring the excitement of this competition to fans in as many of our member countries as possible,” Blazer said. “Hopefully this will signal the start of opening the event to more host cities in a number of countries, as well as leading to a greatly increased collaboration with the Federacion Mexicana de Futbol, for long one of the true bedrocks of our confederation.”

The Estadio Azteca, the only stadium in the world to have played host to two FIFA World Cup finals (1970 and 1986), will be the site for the 2003 Gold Cup final, as well as one of the three-team groups and a quarter-final and semi-final match. With a current capacity of 105,000, the Azteca was opened in 1966 and for the 1993 Gold Cup final, when Mexico defeated the USA 4-0, the stadium was completely to its then-capacity of some 120,000 fans. New Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts will play host to two groups as well as a quarter-final doubleheader. Holding a capacity of 68,000, the stadium completed last year was filled to near-capacity for the 2002 MLS Cup final. The Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida will host Gold Cup matches for the fourth time. Matches for one group, a quarter-final match, a semi-final and the third-place match will be played at the venerable stadium, which holds 74,177.

The tournament begins on July 12, with first-round matches played over six successive days. Quarter-final matches will be played on July 19 and 20, with the semifinals set for July 23 and 24, the third-place match for July 26 and the final scheduled for July 27. The format for the tournament will be similar to the 2002 event, won by the USA in a 2-0 victory against Costa Rica in the final. The three previous champions in the six prior tournaments — Canada, Mexico and the USA — are all granted direct entry into the finals. In the recently concluded Central Zone qualifying tournament, Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador all booked their places.

Two teams will qualify directly from the Caribbean Zone qualifying tournaments set for March 26-30, each winner from the four-team events set for Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica. The second-place teams in each Caribbean final will join Honduras (Central Zone fourth-place finisher) in a three-team playoff to be played by the end of April, the top two advancing to round out the 10 CONCACAF participants. The field will be completed by the addition of the pair of teams from CONMEBOL, with which CONCACAF has a reciprocal agreement for participation by teams in each other’s championships. As current South American champion Colombia has an automatic place in the tournament; a similar place awaits the Gold Cup winner in the next edition of the Copa America. It will be their second participation in the Gold Cup, losing the 2000 final to Canada. The current FIFA World Cup champions round out the field, appearing in the Gold Cup for the third time. In 1996, the Brazil Olympic team reached the final, losing 2-0 to Mexico. Two years later Brazil again was invited, this time losing to the USA 1-0 in the semi-finals before claiming third place. The makeup of the four groups for the 2003 Gold Cup, as well as the full schedule of matches, will be announced shortly.