Bahamas Withdraws from World Cup Qualifying

The Bahamas withdrew from the second round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying Friday, citing an inability to host home games.

Thomas Robinson National Stadium in Nassau was recently renovated by a Chinese firm that increased the stadium's capacity from 9,000 to 23,000. However, the part of this project that was supposed to be done domestically, creating roads, proper sewage and parking lots, is far behind schedule. Rather than host its home games abroad, which would be cost prohibitive, the Bahamas FA decided to withdraw from the competition.

This now leads group C with only three teams, Dominica, Nicaragua and Panama. Bahamas was one of the five round one winners, defeating Turks and Caicos 10-0 on aggregate, although it appears FIFA will not reinstate Turks and Caicos to the competition.

Lack of proper infrastructure is a big problem for these Caribbean minnows, several countries typically play home games on other islands like Trinidad and Tobago because of better facilities. Hopefully another football association is not forced to pull out of the competition because of this same reason.