2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League
The 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League is the inaugural 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 Nations League qualifying tournament also served as part of the qualifying process for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup, which was expanded from 12 to 16 teams. The group stage of the tournament also served as qualification for the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The final tournament, which will decide the inaugural champions, was originally scheduled to be played in June 2020. On 3 April 2020, the final tournament was postponed until March 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Format
The format proposals were first formally investigated at the XXXII CONCACAF Ordinary Congress in Oranjestad, Aruba on 8 April 2017. The tournament was officially confirmed by CONCACAF in November 2017. The format and schedule of the Nations Leagues was announced on 7 March 2018, 10:00 EST, at The Temple House in Miami Beach, Florida, United States.The Nations League began with a one-off qualifying phase, played across four matchdays from September 2018 to March 2019. The results determined the composition of the leagues for the group phase of the tournament. Apart from the six teams which participated in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying hexagonal, the other 34 teams entered qualifying. Each team played four matches, two home and two away, with the results compiled into an aggregate table. Based on the standings, the teams were divided into tiers for the group phase of the inaugural edition of the CONCACAF Nations League. Moreover, the top 10 teams in the qualifying phase qualified for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup, joining the 6 hexagonal participants.
The group phase of the Nations League, consisting of three tiered leagues, will be played in the official FIFA match windows in September, October, and November 2019. All eligible teams will be assigned by sporting performance into Leagues A, B, and C. Each league will be sub-divided into four groups, featuring promotion and relegation, in which the teams will compete in a home-and-away, round-robin format over the course of the group phase.
League A contains 12 teams, split into four groups of three teams. The 6 hexagonal participants are joined by the top 6 teams from qualifying. The four group winners will qualify to the Nations League final championship, to be played in June 2020, which will determine the champion of the new competition. The four teams which finish last in their group will be relegated to League B for the next edition of the tournament.
League B consists of 16 teams, split into four groups of four teams. The league will contain teams which finished from 7th to 22nd in qualifying. The four group winners will be promoted to League A, while the four teams which finish last in their group will be relegated to League C for the next edition.
League C consists of the remaining 13 member associations, the teams which finished 23rd to 34th in qualifying, along with Guatemala who did not enter qualifying. The league will contain four groups, with three groups of three teams and one group of four teams. The four group winners will be promoted to League B for the next edition of the competition.
In September 2019, it was announced that the Nations League would also provide qualification for all 16 teams participating in the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The following teams will qualify for the Gold Cup after group play concludes in November 2019:
- The top two teams from each of the four League A groups
- The winners of each of the four League B groups
- The four winners of a two-round qualifier between the four third-place finishers in League A, the four second-place finishers in League B and the four first-place finishers in League C
Tiebreakers
The ranking of teams in each group is determined as follows :- Points obtained in all group matches ;
- Goal difference in all group matches;
- Number of goals scored in all group matches;
- 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 ;
- Fair play points in all group matches :
- * Yellow card: −1 points;
- * Indirect red card : −3 points;
- * Direct red card: −4 points;
- * Yellow card and direct red card: −5 points;
- Drawing of lots.
Entrants
| Key to colours |
| 2018 WCQ Hexagonal participants automatically in League A |
| Remaining CONCACAF members compete in qualifying |
| Association suspended at deadline to enter qualifying automatically in League C |
;Notes: ScheduleBelow is the schedule of the 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League. The final championship was originally scheduled for March 2020, but was re-scheduled to June 2020. On 3 April 2020, the final tournament was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 27 July 2020, CONCACAF announced the Finals would be held in March 2021, at a venue in the United States to be determined.
The fixture list for the group phase was confirmed by CONCACAF on 21 May 2019. QualifyingThe draw for the qualifying fixtures was held on 7 March 2018 directly after the launch event of the CONCACAF Nations League. The 34 teams were seeded into four pots based on their position in the March 2018 CONCACAF Ranking Index. A computerized pre-draw produced a "master schedule", creating 17 fixtures for each matchday. The teams in each pot were then drawn to the corresponding positions in the schedule. The computer model assured that no teams would face each other more than once, and that each team would play two home and two away matches. Based on their results, the teams were divided into tiers for the main round of the inaugural edition of the CONCACAF Nations League. Moreover, the top ten teams qualified for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup to join the six hexagonal participants.SeedingThe 41 CONCACAF members were allocated into pots of the league for which they qualified. Teams were seeded into pots based on their position in the November 2018 CONCACAF Ranking Index. League A had three pots of four teams, while League B had four pots of four teams. League C had three pots, with pots 1 and 2 featuring four teams each, and pot 3 featuring five teams.
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