MIAMI, Florida – All 31 Caribbean Football Union (CFU) teams will take to the field during the group stage of the Concacaf National League tournament next month.
On Thursday, Concacaf released the schedule, venues, and kick-off times for the matches that will take place during the upcoming international window between September 7 and 12.
The competition’s format was revamped to include more direct elimination matches that qualify teams for continental competitions, including Concacaf’s six teams in the South American confederation’s Copa America next year in the United States.
The Nations League will continue to be played in a three-league format, with the CFU’s senior men’s national teams distributed into group according to their results from the previous edition.
Seven of the CFU’s top 10 ranked sides – Jamaica, Haiti, Martinique, Trinidad & Tobago, Curaçao, Cuba, and Suriname – plus Grenada will play with the “big boys” – Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras – in League A.
For group stage, the 12 teams have been drawn in two groups of six each and will play in a “Swiss style” league system, with each team playing four matches (two at home and two away).
Nicaragua is the only non-CFU team that will be playing in League B, which comprises 16 teams divided into four groups of four teams.
Each team will play every other team in their group, home and away, for six matches a team (three at home and three away).
The four groups are: Group A – Guadeloupe, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Maarten; Group B – Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Montserrat, and Barbados; Group C – French Guiana, Bermuda, St Vincent & the Grenadines, and Belize; and Group D – Guyana, Antigua & Barbuda, Puerto Rico, and The Bahamas.
League C comprises nine teams divided into three groups of three, with each team set to play every team in their group, home and away, for a total of four matches a team (two at home and two away).
The three groups are: Group A – Bonaire, St Martin, and Anguilla; Group B – Aruba, Cayman Islands, and United States Virgin Islands; and Group C – Dominica, Turks & Caicos Islands, and British Virgin Islands.
The first two editions of the Nations League comprised more than 100 official matches played across the confederation, providing competitive opportunities for every Concacaf men’s national team.
The 2022-23 edition ended with the finals between Canada, Mexico, Panama, and the United States. The Americans emerged champions after defeating their neighbors to the north, Canada in the championship match.
