Twelve Nations already qualified via the CONCACAF Nations League, the last four remaining participants will be determined via a two-round qualifier
The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) today announced that the official draw for the 2021 Gold Cup qualifying matches will take place Wednesday, December 11th, in Miami, Florida.
As announced in March of 2018, the group stage of the 2019-2020 CONCACAF Nations League kicked off qualifying for the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup. After round-robin play, the top two finishers in each of the League A groups and the top finisher in each of the League B groups secured their participation in the 16th edition of the Confederation’s premier tournament for men’s national teams.
The 12 teams already qualified for the 2021 Gold Cup are Canada, Costa Rica, Curacao, El Salvador, Grenada, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Suriname and the United States.
The road to the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup will continue next year with a two-round qualifier, to be played in a direct elimination format that includes Bermuda. Beginning in March of 2020, the second-place finishers of League B will face the first-place finishers of League C. After home-and-away play, the four round one matchup winners will advance to the second round, where they will face the third-place finishers of League A. The second round will take place during the FIFA window of June 2020.
The 12 countries that will participate in the 2021 Gold Cup Qualifiers are (listed in alphabetical order per league):
League A: Bermuda, Cuba, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago
League B: French Guiana, Guyana, Montserrat and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
League C: Bahamas, Barbados, Guadeloupe and Guatemala.
Draw Procedures
The draw will be executed using a single blind system, involving three pots. The 12 participating teams will be divided in the pots as follows (in alphabetical order by CONCACAF Nations League):
Pot A: Bermuda, Cuba, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago
Pot B: French Guiana, Guyana, Montserrat and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Pot C: Bahamas, Barbados, Guadeloupe and Guatemala
The draw will begin by randomly selecting a team from Pot C and placing that team in matchup number 1. The process will be replicated with the remaining three teams in Pot C, using matchups 2, 3, and 4, according to the order in which they are drawn. The same procedure will be used for Pot B.
For Pot A, the first team drawn will face the winner of matchup number 1, the second team will face the winner of matchup number 2, the third team will face the winner of matchup number 3 and the fourth team will face the winner of matchup number 4.
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