CONCACAF will begin qualifying for the 2026 World Cup in March 2024.
In March 2024, 32 Central American and Caribbean nations will begin qualifying matches for the 2026 World Cup as part of a competition in which teams will play up to 12 matches to qualify for the tournament.
As co-hosts of the World Cup in June and July 2026, the United States, Mexico, and Canada receive automatic berths. The number of possible matches has been reduced from the 20 that Canada played to qualify for the tournament in Qatar last year.
The Confederation of North, Central American, and Caribbean Association Football announced Tuesday that qualifying will begin in March 2024 with a first-round involving the four lowest-ranked teams in the FIFA rankings as of November 2023, who will play a home-and-home series against the highest-ranked team.
CONCACAF's remaining 28 qualifying teams will compete in a second round in June 2024 and June 2025. Six groups of five teams will compete in a single round-robin format, with each nation hosting two matches.
Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica, El Salvador, and Honduras appear to be the strongest qualifying teams.
The top two teams from each group advance to a 12-nation final round comprised of three groups of four teams. In the autumn of 2025, a double round-robin tournament will be held, with the winners of each group qualifying for the first 48-nation World Cup.
CONCACAF also announced that the four quarterfinalists from this November's CONCACAF Nations League A will qualify for next year's Copa América, the South American championship that was relocated from Ecuador to the United States. The four quarterfinal losers will compete in a Copa América play-in in March 2024, which will be held at a central location, and the two winners will also qualify for the 16-nation tournament, which includes 10 South American teams.
Nations League A will be expanded from 12 to 16 teams.
Winners of the quarterfinals advance to the final round, which will take place in March 2024.
League B will continue to be divided into four groups of four, while League C will be divided into three groups of three. The four League B group winners from the 2022-23 Nations League will be promoted, but there will be no relegation, and the League C group winners will be promoted to Group B.
Following the 2023-24 tournament, the League A fifth and sixth-place teams will be relegated, the four League B group winners will be promoted, the four League B last-place teams will be relegated, and the three League C group winners, along with the top second-place nation, will be promoted.
