What is the CONCACAF Nations League?
The CONCACAF Nations League is a newnational team competition platform created to maximize the match dates presented within the FIFA international calendar. It has been designed to give the Confederation’s national teams the opportunity to compete on a more consistent basis, while opening the door to national team development for all. The competition will launch officially in 2019 and be played every two years.
Why has the CONCACAF Nations League been created?
The CONCACAF Nations League has been created to provide an avenue for more meaningful and quality football for all CONCACAF Member Associations, while uplifting the profile of national teams. In an era where the significance of friendlies has been reduced, the Nations League will uplift the international game.
At the heart of the matter, the Nations League is about uniting the Confederation through competition, while providing increased access to our game for fans and competitors.
Everybody wins.
What is the format?
The new CONCACAF Nations League will be based on a league structure. All 41 CONCACAF Member Associations will be included, divided in three different leagues – established on competitive levels -- with a champion to be crowned at the end of each edition.
The CONCACAF Nations League will be played every two years, starting in 2019. The first edition will launch with a one-off CONCACAF Nations League Qualifier in order to determine league composition.
League A will be comprised by 4 groups of 3 teams. The winners of each group will qualify to the CONCACAF Nations League Final Phase, to be played in March 2020 to determine the first champion of our new competition. The teams in the bottom of the table will be relegated to League B for the next edition of the tournament.
League B will contain 4 groups of 4 teams. The winner of each group will be promoted to League A and the bottom teams will be relegated to League C for the next edition.
League C will be consist of 3 groups of 3 teams and 1 group of 4 teams. The top teams will be promoted to League B.
How will leagues be established?
Leagues will be established in two ways.
First, the six teams that competed in the final round of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup -- Costa Rica, Mexico, Honduras, Panama, Trinidad & Tobago and the United States -- will automatically be placed into League A.
Second, the other 35 teams will earn placement based on their results in the CONCACAF Nations League Qualifier.
What is the CONCACAF Nations League Qualifier?
To seed Member Associations into their respective leagues, the Nations League will begin with a preliminary series of matches played across four different dates beginning in September 2018, known as the CONCACAF Nations League Qualifier.
Teams will compete in the CONCACAF Nations League Qualifier based on their placement in the CONCACAF Ranking Index, a statistics-based algorithm takes into consideration historical data from 1990 to present day, establishing a classification that orders national teams from 1-41.
Under the CONCACAF Ranking Index, in order to best reflect the current competitive strength of each side, matches played throughout the last four-year cycle (2014-18) will have more weight than those that span further back in the calendar.
Through this system, the draw for the CONCACAF Nations League Qualifier – to be contested during four official FIFA match days in September, October and November 2018 and March 2019 – will be executed.
The 34 participating Member Associations (Guatemala will not compete due to FIFA’s suspension of the Guatemalan Football Federation) will initially be designated into four tiers: Tier A will group 8 teams; Tiers B and C will group 9 teams each; while Tier D will group 8 teams.
Through the draw, the teams will all face an opponent from each of the respective tiers, including their own, at least once. Each team will play two home and two away games during the four rounds of competition.
After completion of the four matchdays, based on each team’s performances during the Qualifier, the final table will define which teams earn placement into each of the three leagues that will comprise the CONCACAF Nations League.
What are the Nations League’s advantages?
The Nations League will allow for CONCACAF Member Associations to create, cultivate and capitalize on a truly comprehensive national team development program through regular competition. Rather than many teams playing on a sporadic basis – maybe only competing in two matches during a World Cup Qualifying cycle and a handful of games in a regional tournament every two years -- they will play regularly. This will give Member Associations more time to work with their players, inspire the next generation of footballers and make the national team more visible to all stakeholders.
With amplified fan engagement, opportunities to create and build commercial relationships will become more plentiful.
For many smaller Member Associations, the Nations League promises to offer needed opportunity among those that historically have lacked the tools and structure to develop at the national team level. The Nations League will greatly increase the number of matches in a typical four-year cycle; in some cases, by a large factor. The tournament format facilitates an on-going national team project, instead of short-term World Cup qualifying series.
As examples, Saint-Martin played in two competitive matches – both in Caribbean qualifying for CONCACAF Gold Cup – from 2014-16. Thanks to the Nations League, that same Member Association will take part in 12-16 consequential encounters.
The same goes for the likes of Belize, which stands to increase from 14 competitive matches over the same period to 18-30.
Whole nations will keep the dream alive, participating in competitive international football year-round.
For larger Member Associations, the Nations League will deliver quality football – uniting CONCACAF’s best -- in a structured format with significant performance prizes at stake.
Competitive balance is assured, as teams will play nations similar in strength. The Nations League will consolidate the qualification process for international tournaments such as the Gold Cup, while also informing a CONCACAF ranking system that will be used as the basis for future World Cup Qualifying seeding.
All of this will result in a fairer, more balanced process.
Will this mean more demands on players?
The Nations League is played only during available windows on the FIFA match calendar, so it will not create additional demands on players that compete internationally on a regular basis. For players from smaller nations whose national teams sometimes play infrequently, the competition will provide the platform for them to display their talents more consistently.
Is this the end of friendlies between CONCACAF teams and those from other confederations?
While the opportunities for friendlies within the FIFA international match calendar will be limited, there will still be space for these types of encounters.In broader terms, the Nations League aligns CONCACAF with the general movement in the world of international football, away from low-stakes friendly matches.
Why is CONCACAF employing a system of promotion and relegation for the Nations League?
CONCACAF understands that in the Nations League format, promotion and relegation will serve as a significant motivating factor and reward element for continued improvement. Different from a club- or franchise-based system in which independent leagues may determine their own formats and structures based on local criteria, competitiveness will be enhanced in the Nations League by the promise of promotion for top performing teams.