December 7 – Concacaf has been given the go-ahead by FIFA to have triple match international windows for its final group of World Cup qualifiers that need 14 match days to complete.
The triple match weekends for the final group of eight qualifying teams will be played September, October, November 2021, and January and March 2022.
Concacaf has Qatar 2022 qualification slots for three nations plus an inter-continental play-in berth for a potential fourth qualifier. The top three placed nations in the 8-team group will qualify for Qatar 2022 automatically.
With the covid pandemic having truncated the international schedules, Concacaf has had to reorganise their qualifying process to get games played in time for the winter 2022 World Cup.
Qualifying will begin for 30 Concacaf nations in March 2021 and complete in June 2021 – before the confederation begins its own regional Gold Cup tournament and 12-team pre-Gold Cup qualifiers in the US.
For the World Cup qualifiers, nations will play in six groups of five with each team playing two home and two away games. The six group winners will then play home and away in knock-out matches for the three places in the final qualification group where they will join the top five ranked Concacaf nations – Mexico, USA, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Honduras.
First Round: March 2021 and June 2021 (four match-dates)
Group A
El Salvador (SLV)
Antigua and Barbuda (ATG)
Grenada (GRN)
Montserrat (MSR)
US Virgin Islands (VIR)
Group B
Canada (CAN)
Suriname (SUR)
Bermuda (BER)
Cayman Islands (CAY)
Aruba (ARU)
Group C
Curacao (CUW)
Guatemala (GUA)
St. Vincent and the Grenadines (VIN)
Cuba (CUB)
British Virgin Islands (VGB)
Group D
Panama (PAN)
Dominican Republic (DOM)
Barbados (BRB)
Dominica (DMA)
Anguilla (AIA)
Group E
Haiti (HAI)
Nicaragua (NCA)
Belize (BLZ)
Saint Lucia (LCA)
Turks and Caicos Islands (TCA)
Group F
Trinidad and Tobago (TRI)
Saint Kitts and Nevis (SKN)
Guyana (GUY)
Puerto Rico (PUR)
Bahamas (BAH)
Second Round: June 2021 (two match-dates)
The Second Round will be played between the six group winners from the First Round, with the pre-determined matchups as follows:
- Group A winner vs Group F winner
- Group B winner vs Group E winner
- Group C winner vs Group D winner
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