The fifth edition of the CONCACAF Nations League kicks off this Wednesday, September 23, marking the start of an ambitious campaign involving all 41 Member Associations divided into Leagues A, B, and C. The current September–October FIFA international break will feature 74 Group Stage matches and serve as the sole qualifying pathway for the 2027 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The tournament will reach an unprecedented milestone on Thursday, September 24. When the national teams of the Cayman Islands and Dominica take the field at Windsor Park in Roseau, Dominica, they will be playing the 500th match in the competition’s history. CONCACAF will commemorate the occasion with personalized match balls and special patches on the uniforms.
The competition will run through March 2027, culminating in the League A Finals at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and, for the first time, centralized tournaments for Leagues B and C.
The Road to the 2027 Gold Cup
Performance in this Nations League will determine which teams advance to the region’s premier tournament:
- Direct Qualification: The four winners of the League A Quarterfinals and the four group winners from League B.
- Preliminary Round (Prelims): The four Losers of the League A Quarterfinals, the third- and fourth-place finishers in each League A group, and the two best second-place finishers from League B.
- The Play-In: The teams finishing in fifth and sixth place in League A will face the three group winners and the best second-place finisher from League C. The four winners of this Play-In will also advance to the Gold Cup Prelims.
Competition Structure and Groups
League A: The Road to SoFi Stadium consists of 16 teams. The 12 lowest-ranked teams will compete in a group stage using the Swiss system (four matches per team).
- Group A: Costa Rica, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Curaçao, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic.
- Group B: Honduras, Jamaica, Guatemala, Suriname, Martinique, El Salvador.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the Quarterfinals in November, where the four pre-qualified powerhouses—Mexico, the United States, Canada, and Panama—already await. These matchups will be determined by the CONCACAF Ranking, pairing the top-seeded team against the second-place team from the group with the lowest points total, and so on. The overall winners will advance to the Final Four in Los Angeles.
League B: Centralized Venues and Promotion. Composed of 16 teams divided into four groups. They will play at centralized venues to optimize travel logistics, competing in a total of six matches per team between September and November. The group winners will advance to the League B Championship.
- Group A: Guyana, Puerto Rico, Dominica, Cayman Islands.
- Group B: Guadeloupe, Bermuda, Saint Lucia, Barbados.
- Group C: Cuba, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Bonaire.
- Group D: French Guiana, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Sint Maarten.
League C: The Battle for the Divisional Championship. Nine teams divided into three groups will play in a centralized format, with each team playing four games during the current fall window.
- Group A: Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands, British Virgin Islands.
- Group B: Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Anguilla.
- Group C: Saint Martin, Bahamas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
Action in Leagues A and B will resume during the November FIFA window with the quarterfinals and play-in rounds, setting the stage for the showdown for titles and qualification spots in the spring of 2027.
