Concacaf announces schedule for National League 2023/24

Concacaf has announced the schedule for the 2023/24 Concacaf Nations League (CNL), as per the official website of the Concacaf. The competition’s third edition will take place during the FIFA International Match Windows of September, October, and November 2023, followed by the CNL Finals in March 2024.

The format of the new competition is as follows:

As previously announced, beginning with the 2023/24 CNL, which commences in September 2023, the competition’s format has been revamped to include more direct elimination matches that will qualify teams for continental summer competitions. This includes the qualification route for Concacaf’s six competing teams in the CONMEBOL Copa America 2024.

The 2023/24 CNL will continue to be played in a three-League format (A, B, and C), with the region’s 41 men’s senior national teams distributed into the Leagues according to the results of the 2022/23 CNL.

League A: 16 National Teams (Group Stage and Quarterfinals)

League A has been expanded to include 16 teams (up from 12) and a new quarterfinal round has been created to deliver more direct elimination matches.

For Group Stage play, the 12 lowest ranked teams were drawn into two groups of six teams each and will play in a “Swiss style” league system. In total, each team will play four games (two at home and two away). The groups are as follows:

Group A: Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Martinique, Curaçao, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Group B: Haiti, Jamaica, Honduras, Cuba, Suriname, and Grenada.

After Group Stage play, in the FIFA Match Windows of September and October 2023, each group’s first and second-place finishers will advance to the CNL Quarterfinals, where they will join the four top-ranked League A national teams.

The Quarterfinal round will be played in a home-and-away format in the FIFA Match Window of November 2023, with the aggregate score winners in each Quarterfinal matchup advancing to the 2024 CNL Finals and qualifying for the CONMEBOL Copa America 2024.