World Cup qualifiers in North, Central America and the Caribbean took shape Thursday with a second round draw featuring 30 countries, finalists for three automatic spots in the 2026 tournament with the United States, Mexico and Canada. It was narrowed down to 12 people.
The region's three largest countries earned automatic spots as co-hosts of the tournament, which has expanded to 48 countries and 104 matches.
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Based on the format announced last February, Concacaf's bottom teams will play a home-and-home series in March of this year to advance to the second round, with Anguilla facing the Turks and Caicos Islands and the US Virgin Islands facing the British Virgin Islands. Play against the Islands.
Group stage full lottery results:
Group A: Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Honduras
Group B: Bahamas, Costa Rica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad
Group C: Aruba, Barbados, Curacao, Haiti, Saint Lucia
Group D: Belize, Guyana, Montserrat, Nicaragua, Panama
Group E: Dominica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Jamaica, British Virgin Islands – US Virgin Islands winner
Group F: Winners of El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Turks and Caicos Islands – Anguilla
Each country will play four matches, scheduled for June 2024 and June 2025. The top two countries in each group advance, and the 12 teams are divided into three groups of four teams each. These countries will play six matches between September and November 2025, with the three group winners qualifying for the tournament.
The top two teams in third place advance to an intercontinental playoff featuring one country each from South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania, while the bottom four teams are drawn in two single-elimination matches with the winners advancing to the single league. Masu. Elimination game with a bye team. The winner of this two matches will advance to his 2026 tournament.
Prior to hosting the 1994 World Cup in the United States, FIFA held a high-profile qualifying draw on a Sunday in December 1991 at Madison Square Garden in New York, with 141 countries participating. FIFA divided the draws for the 2026 World Cup by federation and held them on Thursday afternoon. CONCACAF sorting operations at the Zurich office.