The qualifying phase of the 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League was a one-off tournament that took place from 6 September 2018 to 24 March 2019. The qualifying determined the seeding for the group phase of the inaugural tournament, as well as determining the remaining ten teams that qualified for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Format
Apart from the 6 teams which participated in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying hexagonal, the other 34 teams entered qualifying. Subsequently, each team played four matches, two home and two away. Based on their results, the teams were divided into tiers for the group phase of the inaugural edition of the CONCACAF Nations League:
The top 6 teams qualified for League A to join the 6 hexagonal participants.
The next 16 teams qualified for League B.
The last 12 teams qualified for League C to join Guatemala.
Moreover, the top 10 teams qualified for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup to join the 6 hexagonal participants.
Tiebreakers
The ranking of teams in qualifying is determined as follows:
The 34 teams were seeded into four pots based on their position in the March 2018 CONCACAF Ranking Index. Pots A and D contained 8 teams, while pots B and C contained 9 teams.
Pot A
Pot B
Pot C
Pot D
Schedule and match pairings
The order of the match pairings per each FIFA match window was as follows:
Matchday
Dates
Pot pairings
Matches
Matchday [|1]
6–11 September 2018
Pot A v Pot D, Pot B v Pot C
B2 v C7, A6 v D5, D3 v A8, D8 v A1, C9 v B6, C1 v B8, B3 v C6, A3 v D4, A4 v D6, B9 v C2, D7 v A2, C5 v B4, D2 v A5, A7 v D1, B7 v C8, B1 v C3, C4 v B5
Pot A v Pot C, Pot B v Pot D, 1 team from Pot B v 1 team from Pot C
D6 v B7, A2 v C8, B6 v D1, B4 v D4, C6 v A7, B5 v D8, B8 v D5, C3 v B3, D7 v B1, A5 v C9, C7 v A6, C2 v A4, A8 v C1, D2 v B2, D3 v B9, A1 v C4, C5 v A3
Matchday 3
16–20 November 2018
Pot A v Pot B, Pot C v Pot D, 1 team from Pot B v 1 team from Pot C
C2 v D2, D6 v C4, A1 v B7, D5 v C5, B2 v A8, A4 v B4, B5 v A7, C3 v D8, C8 v D3, D1 v C1, B9 v A5, A3 v B8, C9 v D7, D4 v C6, A6 v B3, B6 v A2, B1 v C7
Matchday 4
21–24 March 2019
Pot A v Pot A, Pot B v Pot B, Pot C v Pot C, Pot D v Pot D, 1 team from Pot B v 1 team from Pot C
A8 v A1, B3 v B9, B4 v B6, A7 v A4, C8 v B5, D1 v D2, D4 v D7, B8 v B2, C6 v C9, C7 v C2, A5 v A6, C1 v C3, D5 v D6, B7 v B1, A2 v A3, C4 v C5, D8 v D3
The draw of the qualifying fixtures was held on 7 March 2018, 10:00 EST, at The Temple House in Miami Beach, Florida, United States, directly after the launch event of the CONCACAF Nations League. 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 face each other more than once, and that each team plays two home and two away matches. The result of the draw was as follows:
The match dates were announced on 29 May 2018, with the venues announced in August and September 2018. The March 2019 match schedule was revised by CONCACAF in January 2019. Times in September, October and March are Eastern Daylight Time, while times in November are Eastern Standard Time, as listed by CONCACAF. If the venue is located in a different time zone, the local time is also given.
At the end of the CONCACAF Nations League qualifying, the top ten teams qualified for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup together with the six participants of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying Hexagonal.
Team
Qualified as
Qualified on
Previous appearances in CONCACAF Gold Cup1 only Gold Cup era
