- 34 nations will compete for the region’s eight spots in next year’s FIFA U-17 World Cup
- Matches to be played across six venues from February 3 - 12, 2026
- Official draw is scheduled for October 21, 2025
Miami, FL – Concacaf has announced key details about the 2026 Concacaf U-17 Qualifiers. The region’s FIFA U-17 World Cup 2026 qualifying competition will take place from February 3 - 12, across six venues and feature 34 member associations.
The tournament will follow the same format introduced for the 2025 edition, featuring a single round. The participating teams will split into eight groups, and each team will face every other team in its group once. At the conclusion of play, the eight group winners qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Matches will take place across six venues: Honduras, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Panama, Trinidad & Tobago, Costa Rica, and Guatemala.
The 34 Concacaf member associations that will participate are (in alphabetical order): Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic. El Salvador, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin, Sint Maarten, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos Islands, United States.
The competition’s official draw is scheduled for October 21 at 11 a.m. ET. Fans can follow the event on Concacaf’s YouTube channel.
According to the competition regulations, the participating teams will be divided into five pots based on their Concacaf Men’s U-17 Ranking as of April 2025. The highest-ranked teams will be placed in Pot 1, and the lowest-ranked teams will be placed in Pot 5.
- Pot 1
Mexico, United States, Canada, Panama, Honduras, Costa Rica, Haiti, and El Salvador. - Pot 2
Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Bermuda, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago. - Pot 3
Cuba, Guyana, Aruba, Barbados, Guadeloupe, British Virgin Islands, St Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda. - Pot 4
Belize, Cayman Islands, Saint Martin, Suriname, Anguilla, Turks and Caicos, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada. - Pot 5
Dominica and Sint Maarten.
At the conclusion of the draw, teams will be split into six groups of four teams and two groups of 5 teams.
In the previous edition of the Concacaf Under-17 Qualifiers, played under the same format, Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, and the United States topped their respective groups to secure qualification for the FIFA U-17 World Cup Qatar 2025.
