2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League

The 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League will be the inaugural season of the CONCACAF Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 41 member associations of CONCACAF. The competition, which will be held from September 2018, will also serve as part of the qualifying process for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup, which has been expanded from 12 to 16 teams.

Format

The format proposals were first formally investigated at the XXXII CONCACAF Ordinary Congress in Oranjestad, Aruba on 8 April 2017.^[1] The tournament was officially confirmed by CONCACAF in November 2017.^[2] The format and schedule of the Nations Leagues was announced on 7 March 2018, 10:00 EST (UTC−5), at The Temple House in Miami Beach, Florida, United States.^[3][4]

The Nations League will begin with a one-off qualifying phase, to be played across four matchdays from September 2018 to March 2019, which will determine the composition of the leagues for the group phase of the tournament. Apart from the 6 teams which participated in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying hexagonal, the other 34 teams (Guatemala could not enter due to FIFA suspension) entered qualifying. Each team will play four matches, two home and two away, with the results compiled into an aggregate table. Based on the standings, the teams will be divided into tiers for the group phase of the inaugural edition of the CONCACAF Nations League. Moreover, the top 10 teams in the qualifying phase will qualify for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup, joining the 6 hexagonal participants.^[5][6]

The group phase of the Nations League, consisting of three tiered leagues, will be played in the official FIFA match windows in September, October, and November 2019. All eligible teams will be assigned by sporting performance into Leagues A, B, and C. Each league will be sub-divided into four groups, featuring promotion and relegation, in which the teams will compete in a home-and-away, round-robin format over the course of the group phase.^[7]

League A will contain 12 teams, with the 6 hexagonal participants joined by the top 6 teams from qualifying. The league will be split into four groups of three teams. The four group winners will qualify to the Nations League final championship, to be played in March 2020, which will determine the champion of the new competition. The four last-placed teams in each group will be relegated to League B for the next edition of the tournament.

League B will consist of the next 16 teams from qualifying, which finished from 7th to 22nd. The league will contain four groups of four teams. The four group winners will be promoted to League A, while the four last-placed teams in each group will be relegated to League C for the next edition.

League C will consist of the remaining member associations, the teams which finished 23rd to 34th in qualifying. The league normally consists of 13 teams divided into four groups, with three groups of three teams and one group of four teams. However, due to the suspension of Guatemala, there are currently only 12 teams eligible, which would result in the league being divided into four groups of three teams. If the suspension is lifted prior to the group phase, Guatemala possibly could be admitted into League C. The four group winners will be promoted to League B for the next edition of the competition.

Entrants

Of CONCACAF's 41 member associations, 40 entered into the competition.^[8] The National Football Federation of Guatemala was suspended by FIFA in October 2016,^[9] and therefore Guatemala was ineligible to enter qualifying after missing the deadline of 1 March 2018.^[10] However, as the suspension was lifted by FIFA in May 2018,^[11] Guatemala could possibly enter into the group phase.

The 6 teams which participated in the fifth round (hexagonal) of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification received automatic entry into League A. The remaining 34 teams entered into qualifying to determine which league they enter.

Rank Team Pts[8] 1  Mexico 2,047 2  United States 1,853 3  Costa Rica 1,845 4  Panama 1,700 5  Honduras 1,669 6  Jamaica 1,516 7  Canada 1,448 8  Guatemala[lower-alpha 1] 1,417 9  Haiti 1,348 10  El Salvador 1,347 11  Trinidad and Tobago 1,339 12  Martinique[lower-alpha 2] 1,271 13  Cuba 1,146 14  French Guiana[lower-alpha 2] 1,108 15  Guadeloupe[lower-alpha 2] 1,089 16  Nicaragua 1,032 17  Saint Kitts and Nevis 1,023 18  Curaçao 1,018 19  Suriname 991 20  Antigua and Barbuda 946 21  Dominican Republic 925

Rank Team Pts[8] 22  Bermuda 924 23  Guyana 914 24  Belize 853 25  Bonaire[lower-alpha 2] 799 26  Grenada 795 27  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 793 28  Saint Lucia 773 29  Barbados 731 30  Puerto Rico 693 31  Bahamas 627 32  Dominica 563 33  Aruba 559 34  Cayman Islands 543 35  Turks and Caicos Islands 483 36  Montserrat 435 37  U.S. Virgin Islands 401 38  Saint Martin[lower-alpha 2] 352 39  Sint Maarten[lower-alpha 2] 336 40  Anguilla 261 41  British Virgin Islands 261

Notes

Schedule

Below is the schedule of the 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League.

Qualifying

The draw for the qualifying fixtures was held on 7 March 2018 directly after the launch event of the CONCACAF Nations League.^[3] The 34 teams were seeded into four pots based on their position in the March 2018 CONCACAF Ranking Index. A computerized pre-draw produced a "master schedule", creating 17 fixtures for each matchday. The teams in each pot were then drawn to the corresponding positions in the schedule. The computer model assured that no teams would face each other more than once, and that each team would play two home and two away matches.^[12][13] Based on their results, the teams will be divided into tiers for the main round of the inaugural edition of the CONCACAF Nations League. Moreover, the top ten teams will qualify for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup to join the six hexagonal participants.^[4]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Curaçao	2	2	0	0	15	0	+15	6	Qualification to League A and 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup
2	Cuba	2	2	0	0	13	0	+13	6
3	Saint Kitts and Nevis	2	2	0	0	11	0	+11	6
4	Jamaica	2	2	0	0	10	0	+10	6
5	Dominican Republic	2	2	0	0	8	0	+8	6[lower-alpha 1]
6	Nicaragua	2	2	0	0	8	0	+8	6[lower-alpha 1]
7	El Salvador	2	2	0	0	5	1	+4	6	Qualification to League B and 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup
8	Guyana	2	1	1	0	10	2	+8	4
9	Suriname	2	1	1	0	5	0	+5	4
10	Haiti	1	1	0	0	13	0	+13	3
11	Bermuda	2	1	0	1	13	3	+10	3	Qualification to League B
12	Canada	1	1	0	0	8	0	+8	3
13	French Guiana	2	1	0	1	5	1	+4	3
14	Antigua and Barbuda	2	1	0	1	6	3	+3	3
15	Belize	2	1	0	1	4	1	+3	3
16	Guadeloupe	1	1	0	0	3	0	+3	3[lower-alpha 2]
17	Saint Lucia	1	1	0	0	3	0	+3	3[lower-alpha 2]
18	Aruba	1	1	0	0	3	1	+2	3
19	Martinique	1	1	0	0	1	0	+1	3
20	Montserrat	2	1	0	1	2	2	0	3
21	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	2	1	0	1	1	2	−1	3
22	Dominica	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
23	Barbados	2	0	1	1	2	5	−3	1	Qualification to League C
24	Puerto Rico	2	0	0	2	0	2	−2	0
25	British Virgin Islands	1	0	0	1	0	5	−5	0
26	Cayman Islands	2	0	0	2	0	7	−7	0
27	Bahamas	2	0	0	2	0	10	−10	0
28	Anguilla	2	0	0	2	0	11	−11	0[lower-alpha 3]
29	Bonaire	2	0	0	2	0	11	−11	0[lower-alpha 3]
30	Grenada	2	0	0	2	0	12	−12	0
31	Saint Martin	2	0	0	2	0	13	−13	0
31	U.S. Virgin Islands	2	0	0	2	0	13	−13	0
33	Turks and Caicos Islands	2	0	0	2	0	19	−19	0
34	Sint Maarten	2	0	0	2	0	25	−25	0

League A

Teams qualified for League A

League B

League C

References

External links

• Official website