League A: 7 September – 17 October 2023 Leagues B and C: 7 September – 21 November 2023 League A quarter-finals: 16–21 November 2023 Nations League Finals: March 2024
The 2023–24 CONCACAF Nations League is the third season of the CONCACAF Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 41 member associations of CONCACAF. The group stage will be held in September and October 2023, and the Nations League Finals are scheduled for March 2024.
The competition will see a format change, with League A now featuring sixteen teams in two groups of a Swiss system, followed by a quarter-final round. The Nations League also serves as qualification for CONCACAF teams to the 2024 Copa América in the United States.
The United States are the two-time defending champions.
Format
On 28 February 2023, CONCACAF announced a format change for the 2023–24 season of the CONCACAF Nations League. As a result, no teams will be relegated from the 2022–23 season.[1][2]
The size of League A will be increased from twelve to sixteen teams, and will now feature a quarter-final round. The twelve lowest-ranked teams in the CONCACAF Rankings of March 2023 will enter the group stage, now using a modified group format. The teams will be divided into two groups of six teams, with each team playing four matches against group opponents (two at home and two away). The top four teams will advance to the quarter-finals, and will be joined by the four top-ranked teams in the CONCACAF Rankings of March 2023. The teams advancing from the group stage will be drawn into ties against the top-ranked teams, which will be played on a two-legged home-and-away basis. The four quarter-finals winners will advance to the Nations League Finals, which retains its previous format of a semi-final round, third place play-off and final match to determine the champions.
The 2023–24 Nations League A will determine the six CONCACAF teams which will qualify as guests for the 2024 Copa América in the United States. The quarter-finals winners will qualify directly to the tournament, while the losers will advance to a qualifying play-off, featuring two single-leg matches.
League B will remain unchanged, featuring sixteen teams divided into four groups of four. Each team will play six matches in a double round-robin home-and-away format (three at home and three away). Following the format change, League C will be reduced from thirteen to nine teams and from four to three groups. Teams will be divided into three groups of three teams, with each team playing four matches in a double round-robin home-and-away format (two at home and two away).[1]
Promotion and relegation will resume for the 2023–24 season, with the fifth and sixth placed teams in League A and the fourth-placed teams in League B being relegated for the next season. The group winners of Leagues B and C will be promoted, as will the best second-placed team of League C.[1]
Tiebreakers
The ranking of teams in each group is determined as follows (Regulations Article 12.4):[3]
Points obtained in all group matches (three points for a win, one for a draw, zero for a loss);
If two or more teams still tied based on the above criteria, their rankings are determined as follows:
Points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
Goal difference in the matches played between the teams in question;
Number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;
Number of away goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question (if the tie was only between two teams);
Lowest number of disciplinary points in all group matches (only one deduction could be applied to a player in a single match):
Yellow card: 1 points;
Indirect red card (second yellow card): 3 points;
Direct red card: 4 points;
Yellow card and direct red card: 5 points;
Drawing of lots.
Entrants
All of CONCACAF's 41 member associations will enter in the competition. Teams will be divided into leagues based on their results of the 2022–23 season, while the pots were determined by the CONCACAF Ranking of March 2023.[4] The four top-ranked teams in League A will receive a bye to the quarter-finals. The group stage draw was held on 16 May 2023, 19:00 EDT, in Miami, Florida, United States.[1][5][6] The pots were confirmed on 2 May 2023, with League A split into six pots of two teams, League B split into four pots of four teams and League C split into three pots of three teams.[7]
Nicaragua originally qualified for promotion to League A as winners of League B Group C, but were disqualified due to fielding an ineligible player. As a result, they were replaced on June 12, 2023, by Trinidad and Tobago. Nicaragua replaced Trinidad and Tobago in League B [8]
The quarter-finals pairings were determined based on the CONCACAF Rankings published after the October 2023 FIFA Match Window for the four pre-seeded teams and the group stage results for the winners and runners-up of each group.[3]
The four teams were ranked based on their results in both legs of the quarter-finals to determine the semi-final matchups. The first seed played the fourth seed and the second seed played the third seed.[13]
Axel Raga
Canada
Mexico
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