Concacaf reveals 6 groups for 2026 World Cup qualifying

World Cup qualifying in North and Central America and the Caribbean took form Thursday with the draw for a 30-nation second spherical that can slim the sphere to 12 finalists for three computerized berths to affix the United States, Mexico and Canada within the 2026 match.

The area’s three largest nations obtained computerized slots as co-hosts of the expanded 48-nation, 104-game match.

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Under the format introduced final February, Concacaf’s lowest-ranked groups play home-and-home collection this March to succeed in the second spherical, with Anguilla dealing with the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands assembly the British Virgin Islands.

Full Group Stage Draw Results:

Group A: Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Honduras

Group B: Bahamas, Costa Rica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad

Group C: Aruba, Barbados, Curaçao, Haiti, St. Lucia

Group D: Belize, Guyana, Montserrat, Nicaragua, Panama

Group E: Dominica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Jamaica, British Virgin Islands-U.S. Virgin Islands winner

Group F: El Salvador, Puerto Rico, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Turks and Caicos Islands-Anguilla winner

Each nation will play 4 matches that will probably be scheduled for June 2024 and June 2025. The high two nations in every group advance, and the 12 groups will probably be drawn into three groups of 4. Each of these international locations will play six video games from September via November in 2025, and the three group winners qualify.

The high two third-place groups advance to intercontinental playoffs that embrace one nation every from South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania, The 4 lowest-ranked groups will probably be drawn right into a pair of single-elimination matches and the winners advance to single-elimination video games in opposition to the groups with byes. The winners of these two video games attain the 2026 match.

Prior to the 1994 World Cup within the U.S., FIFA held an attention-grabbing qualifying draw involving 141 nations at New York’s Madison Square Garden on a Sunday in December 1991. FIFA has cut up up attracts by confederation for the 2026 World Cup and held Thursday afternoon’s CONCACAF sorting at its workplace in Zurich.