Sixteen Nations Set for League A Challenge

09/16/2026 - 3:44 PM

image: Concacaf_Nations_League_-_League_A_(2)

The League A Road Ahead

A closer look at the teams, format and stakes in League A.

MIAMI – The 2026/2027 Concacaf Nations League League A will kick off in September 24th, going all the way through October 5th, with 16 teams looking to qualify for the 2027 Concacaf GoldCup.

League Composition

League A will feature 16 National Teams that will participate in a Group Stage and a Quarterfinal Stage. The 12 lowest ranked teams, according to the Concacaf Rankings, will compete in a Group Stage format, each team having two games at home and two games away.

The Groups for the 12 lowest ranked teams are as follows:

Group A: Costa Rica, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Curaçao, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic.
Group B: Honduras, Jamaica, Guatemala, Suriname, Martinique, El Salvador.

Following the Group Stage play in the September-October FIFA window, which for League A will run from September 24th to September 28th, the top two teams in each group will advance to the Quarterfinal stage, joining the four pre-seeded teams in League A: Canada, Mexico, Panama, and the United States.

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The Qualifiers, to be played in November 2026 will see the eight best teams for League A compete to advance to the Concacaf Nations League Finals, which will take place in SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

The teams that advance to the Concacaf Nations League Finals will receive a direct qualification path to the 2027 Concacaf Gold Cup. You can find all the information about the Qualification path here.

Tournament phases and dates

The 2026/2027 Concacaf Nations League will follow the schedule below:

Group Stage - September 24th, 2026 - October 5th, 2026
Quarterfinals - November 9th, 2026 - November 17th, 2026
Finals: March 25, 2027 - March 28, 2027

History and past winners

Announced in 2017 and a Group Stage format kicking off in 2019, The 2026/2027 Concacaf Nations League will be the fifth edition of the tournament, with past winners include the United States, who made history winning the competition three times in a row, and Mexico, who claimed the title in the last edition of the tournament.