Agree. I gotta think CONCACAF has to be feeling pretty good after year 1 in spite of the chaos COVID caused
I just hope that, for next season, CONCACAF mirrors what UEFA did and turns League A into four-team groups, e.g. 16+16+9 instead of the current 12+16+13. Three-team groups are simply awkward.
Eh... UEFA has more depth, and I think getting the US and Mexico to give up two friendly dates for more games against Cuba and Grenada is too much of an ask.
Yeah, that's the one worry I had about the suggestion as well - there's a much bigger spread 1-to-16 in C'CAF than in UEFA. It just feels cleaner to me with nice square groups. X-D Besides, if you look at the four teams that would be "saved" for next season, at least two of them (T&T and Haiti) certainly don't feel incredibly overmatched against the likes of C'CAF's top teams even if they are definitely weaker.
I think the 3 team groups work well for where CONCACAF is at To me Concacaf has pretty distinguished tiers at the top Tier 1 - Mexico, USA, Costa Rica, Honduras Tier 2 - Jamaica, Panama, Canada, El Salvador Tier 3 - Haiti, Guatemala, Curacao, Martinique Tier 4 - T&T, Suriname, Cuba, Guadeloupe Tiers 2, 3, and 4 are pretty close making it a fun, more elite competition
Competitive games are better than friendlies, but the finals tournament was essentially a money-making scheme with a trophy but without any purpose. It is what it is. It's not a continental championship and there's no qualification to a Global Nations League. UEFA and Concacaf should at least try to set up a match between their NL champions going forward. I liked the original concept of a Global Nations League, so if Africa, Asia, and S. America ever get on board, there could be some real potential.
Well, in some ways you are right. In some ways you are wrong. Last night was more important than the Gold Cup this cycle. That (GC) continental Championship is going to ring really hollow with a bunch of benchers out there. Teams took this tournament more seriously this summer.
Moving forward with no Confederation Cup bid on the line, I see the Nations League becoming more prestigious than the Gold Cup....thoughts???
...which is something that Montagliani has tacitly accepted when asked on OneSoccer about the Gold Cup continuing to be every two years. Essentially, Concacaf would rather the Gold Cup be profitable than prestigious.
I could see one day a joint undertaking between multiple associations to have a Nations League like format with elite teams from each confederations. The format is already there and proving successful for UEFA and CONCACAF so why not add to it? Like a National teams Champions League
So, I don't know if anyone is going to start a separate thread for the next edition... I know what you're thinking: isn't it super early to be talking about it? I'd think the same thing... but strangely, Haitian sports outlet TotalMixRadio is claiming that Concacaf already set the groups for 2022-23, and that Haiti's League B group will include Montserrat, Nicaragua and Guadeloupe. It's odd that their note doesn't include any of the other groups; and I haven't seen any announcement from Concacaf or anyone else on this.
Agree with this. I like 16 teams for the Gold Cup - give more nations a shot & works better for the tournament (no best 3rd place in group advancing). But, if you separate the teams into tiers, I the top tier cuts off around 12, and there's a big drop-off down at 16. So, if the top level of Nations League included 16 teams, now you're relegating 4, and promoting 4 who in theory are ranked between 17 and 20. Too large of a competitive gap between #8 and #20 would make the Nations League under that format less interesting/competitive. Keeping that Middle group (B) at 16 teams is probably also better for helping to develop those teams.
Seems as good a place as any for pontificating on this update ( @IASocFan @Wiso @edcalvi maybe we'd want to make a 2026 WCQ thread and/or turn the Gold Cup subform into Gold Cup / Nations League? ): Concacaf announces formats for men’s national team competitions for the 2023-2026 cyclehttps://t.co/MMTxne2OIK— Concacaf (@Concacaf) February 28, 2023 To summarize the men's NT components as best I can: Nations League We will have two more editions of NL in this WC cycle But with a format change that will allow the bigger teams a break... The current one (2022-23) will finish as scheduled, with the groups ending this month and the Final Four in June. However, there is no relegation, with League A expanding to 16 teams for the next edition. For 2023-24 and 2024-25, the top 4 ranked teams in League A (per the Concacaf ranking) get a bye from the group stage, with everyone else getting drawn into two groups of 6. Here's where things get screwy: the groups will play out over four matchdays (in September and October) Swiss-style, so we're not getting a full round robin. When it's done, the top 2 in each group will advance to home-and-away quarterfinals in November, joining the 4 seeded teams; the QF winners will advance to the Final Four, to be played the following March. The bottom 2 in each group will get relegated to League B. Leagues B (16 teams in 4 groups of 4) and C (9 teams in 3 groups of 3) will play out a normal home-and-away round robin schedule from September to November, with the group winners and the best runner-up in League C getting promoted. Gold Cup We already know about the current NL feeding into the 2023 Gold Cup; it will have the same format as its predecessor, with Qatar participating as a guest team. The announcement also states that there will be a 2025 Gold Cup, with the 2024-25 Nations League serving as qualifying... but without further details on how it will work. Copa América So if the 2024-25 NL edition will determine the 2025 Gold Cup participants, why are we having a 2023-24 edition? That's because that competition - more specifically, that edition of League A - will determine Concacaf's 6 participants in the next Copa América. That's right, all 6 - even the US has to qualify. The winners of the 2023-24 CNL quarterfinals (in November of this year) all qualify for the Copa América, while the losers will go to 1-game playoffs in March 2024 for the last two berths, like we had in Panama in 2016 ahead of the Centenario. 2026 World Cup qualifying 32 teams will participate, as the United 2026 hosts will all qualify automatically. The 4 lowest-ranked Concacaf teams in the FIFA World Ranking will kick off WCQ by getting paired based on ranking (i.e. no draw, just 1 v. 4 and 2 v. 3) for home-and-away playoffs in March 2024. The rest join the two playoff winners for Round 2: the 30 sides will get drawn into 6 groups of 5, where everyone plays each other once with 2 home and 2 away games, similar to the first round of 2022 WCQ. Even more surprising, the first 2.5 matchdays will happen in June 2024, and the last 2.5 matchdays in June 2025, to accommodate Nations League The group winners and runners-up will get drawn into 3 groups of 4 for the last round, to be played in September/October (4 matchdays all bunched up into the same window) and November 2025. They'll play the traditional home-and-away round robin; the group winners will qualify for United '26, while the two best runners-up will move on to the intercontinental playoff in March '26. In calendar form... 2023 March - Nations League group stage June - Nations League Final Four June/July - Gold Cup September - Nations League group stage October - Nations League group stage November - Nations League quarterfinals (League A) / group stage (Leagues B, C) 2024 March - Nations League Final Four, Copa América single-leg playoffs, WCQ Round 1 June - WCQ Round 2 June/July - Copa América September - Nations League group stage October - Nations League group stage November - Nations League quarterfinals (League A) / group stage (Leagues B, C) 2025 March - Nations League Final Four June - WCQ Round 2 June/July - Gold Cup September/October - WCQ Round 3 November - WCQ Round 3 2026 March - Intercontinental playoffs June/July - World Cup finals
On the League A groups starting in the next edition: I've been thinking about how to make the schedule the most equitable it can be under the circumstances, and the answer I've come up with is taking the round-robin schedule for a six-team group and removing the matchday with: 1 v. 6 2 v. 5 3 v. 4 That way, you can add up the Pots for every team and they'll all equal 14 (e.g. Team 1 playing 2, 3, 4 and 5... Team 4 playing 1, 2, 5 and 6... Team 5 playing 1, 3, 4 and 6).
If I am understanding the Nations League seeding correctly, it will be US v Mexico in one semifinal. Canada v Costa Rica or Panama in the other.
My initial thoughts are that I'm not really a fan of the home and home quarter-finals. We'll see how this plays out - it's possible I change my mind on that.
They've reduced the pre Semi final commitment for the top 4 teams from 4 games to 2 I bet this format becomes the norm
New CONCACAF rakings are out for March Based on previously released information, these rankings should be used for next Nations League TOP 4 1 Mexico 2 United States 3 Costa Rica 4 Canada League A 5 Panama A1 6 Haiti A1 7 Jamaica A1 8 Guatemala A1 9 Honduras A2 10 El Salvador A2 12 Martinique A2 13 Curaçao A2 14 Cuba A3 16 Suriname A3 17 Nicaragua A3 25 Grenada A3 League B 11 Trinidad & Tobago B1 15 French Guiana B1 18 Guyana B1 19 Guadeloupe B1 20 Antigua and Barbuda B2 21 St. Kitts & Nevis B2 22 Dominican Republic B2 23 Bermuda B2 24 St. Lucia B3 26 Puerto Rico B3 27 Montserrat B3 28 St. Vincent & the Grenadines B3 29 Belize B4 30 Barbados B4 34 Bahamas B4 37 Sint Maarten B4 League C 31 Bonaire C1 32 Dominica C1 33 Aruba C1 35 Turks and Caicos Islands C2 36 Cayman Islands C2 38 Saint Martin C2 39 Anguilla C3 40 US Virgin Islands C3 41 British Virgin Islands C3
So if they decide to have six separate pots for the League A group stage draw (noting that the teams will get placed in 2 groups of 6), they would look like: Pot 1 Panama Haiti Pot 2 Jamaica Guatemala Pot 3 Honduras El Salvador Pot 4 Martinique Curaçao Pot 5 Cuba Suriname Pot 6 Nicaragua Grenada
Wouldn't they do 3 pots with each of the two groups getting two teams in each pot? With it not being true round robin, the rule could be the team you don't play in the group is the team in your pot. Pot 1 - Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Guatemala Pot 2 - Honduras, El Salvador, Martinique, Curacao Pot 3 - Cuba, Suriname, Nicaragua, Grenada