As announced on 10th July 2019, the qualification for the CONCACAF has been reformatted

First Round

A round robin league format shall take place in 2020* with six groups of five that contain nations ranked, 6th to 35th. Single round robin, home and away with the group winners advancing to the second round of qualification.

*Because of the Coronavirus Pandemic, the actual start date was delayed to March 2021

Second Round

The remaining sides that contest this round will be playing two legged affairs, home and away with the winners of these ties to advance into the final round where the top five ranked sides will enter the fray.

Final Round

This will contain the top six nations highly ranked in the June 2020 FIFA World Rankings under the Concacaf confederation.

The second round winners and nations ranked from one to five in the FIFA rankings will contest a mini league where the top three teams in the mini league qualifies for the world cup in Qatar and the fourth best team enters an inter confederation play off.

Latest: 11th February 2021

Round One: The group stage is set for the first round of the North, Carribean and Central Americas (including Canada) contingents.

The likes of the United States of America, Honduras and Costa Rica get a bye to the third round of qualification.

Game 1

Belize made a hash start against Haiti by losing 2-0 in Port Au Prince. Curacao made an impressive start by slotting five past St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Round Up 05.06.2021

Saint Lucia withdrew from qualifying, they were originally in group E so now group E teams only play three games overall instead of four.

Guatemala thrashed St Vincent and the Grenadines, 10-0 on the 4th June 2021. Suriname (of South America) thrashed the Caribbean nation of Bermuda 6-0 also on the fourth of June.

Most of the teams have played at least three games except for group E. (see start of the roundup)

The top two sides of each group advances to the second round where they will be playing against each other over two legs.

As things stand;

St Kitts and Nevis vs Antigua and Barbuda

Nicaragua vs Suriname

and

Dominican Rep. vs Guatemala

(If the first round ended now (05.06.2021 01:46am BST)

The winners of each affair, carries on into the third round where they meet the big teams in an eight nation, double round robin league where each team plays 14 games overall.

The top three nations qualify for the FIFA World Cup where the fourth has to navigate the inter-confederation play off.

3rd September 2021 update:

Just to catch up here, El Salvador, Canada, Curacao, Panama, Haiti and St Kitts & Nevis were promoted to the second round.

During the second round, El Salvador convincingly beat St Kitts & Nevis 4-0 in the first fixture and 2-0 in the reverse game, winning 6-0 on aggregate.

Canada overcame Haiti 4-0 on aggregate, as the Canadians won 1-0 in Port-au-Prince and won the home fixture 3-0 in Bridgeview in the United States.

Panama narrowly edges out Curacao 2-1 overall with the damaged being done in the first game as Panama were 2-1 victors in Panama City. The second leg ended in a 0-0 stalemate.

The third round is where the big boys enter the fray, such as the USA and Mexico.

Canada drew 1-1 with Honduras, Panama also drew against Costa Rica, Mexico beat Jamaica by a goal, in a 2-1 win, finally, El Salvador played out a goal less draw with the USA.

Top three automatically qualify for the 2022 Qatar World Cup and the fourth placed team must enter an inter-confederation play off.

Honduras currently lie second in the qualification table due to scoring an away goal.

30th September 2021 Update:

Mexico lead the race to Qatar 2022 with Canada two points behind them, USA are on the same amount of points as Canada but sit behind Canada in third due to USA and Canada’s head to head record on ‘away goals’. (Canada have scored one more than the USA)

Panama are in fourth position which is a route into the inter-confederation play offs.

Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and Jamaica currently are out of the qualifying places with eleven games to go.

On matchday three, USA beat Honduras 4-1 in San Pedro Sula, whilst Canada comfortably beat El Salvador 3-0.

Panama drew with leaders Mexico whilst Costa Rica drew with bottom team Jamaica.

16th November 2021 Update:

All eight teams that remain are seven games in to their qualification for next year’s competition which is in the third round of proceedings.

Currently the United States of America are top of the pile on fourteen points, however Mexico are second with the same amount of points. (USA have a superior goals difference which separates the teams)

Canada are in the final automatic berth which equates to third place on thirteen points with the same goals difference as the USA.

(Should USA lose their next game 1-0 and Canada was to draw their next match then Canada would move above the USA on goal difference.)

Honduras are in the unfortunate position of being bottom of the standings though there are seven more games to play, so this could change.

USA beat Mexico 1-0 on matchday 7 whilst their neighbour, Canada narrowly edged out Costa Rica in a 1-0 win.

El Salvador drew with Jamaica 1-1 and Honduras lost 3-2 to Panama.