World Cup qualifiers in North, Central America and the Caribbean took shape Thursday with the draw for a second round among 30 nations that will narrow the field to 12 finalists for three automatic spots joining the United States, Mexico and Canada in the 2026 tournament.
The region's three largest nations received automatic berths as co-hosts of the expanded 48-nation, 104-game tournament.
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Under the format announced last February, Concacaf's lowest-ranked teams will play home-and-away series in March to reach the second round, with Anguilla facing the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the US Virgin Islands against the British Virgin Islands.
Complete group stage draw results:
Group A: Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Honduras
B Group: Bahamas, Costa Rica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad
Group C: Aruba, Barbados, Curaçao, Haiti, Saint Lucia
Group D: Belize, Guyana, Montserrat, Nicaragua, Panama
Group E: Dominica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Jamaica, winner British Virgin Islands-US Virgin Islands
Group F: Winner from El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Turks and Caicos Islands-Anguilla
Each nation will play four matches that will be scheduled for June 2024 and June 2025. The top two nations in each group advance and the 12 teams will be divided into three groups of four. Each of those countries will play six matches from September to November 2025, with the three group winners qualifying.
The top two third-place teams advance to the intercontinental playoffs that include a nation from South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. The four lowest-ranked teams will be drawn in a pair of single-elimination matches and the winners will advance to the individual phase. Elimination games against teams with byes. The winners of those two games will reach the 2026 tournament.
Before the 1994 World Cup in the United States, FIFA held an attention-grabbing qualifying draw involving 141 nations at Madison Square Garden in New York on a Sunday in December 1991. FIFA divided the draws by confederation for the 2026 World Cup and celebrated on Thursday afternoon. CONCACAF classification in its Zurich office.
