The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF, is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 41 member associations represent countries and territories mainly in North America, including the Caribbean and Central America, and, for geopolitical reasons, three nations from the Guianas subregion of South America—Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. The CONCACAF's primary functions are to organize competitions for national teams and clubs, and to conduct the World Cup and Women's World Cup qualifying tournaments.
The South American Football Confederation is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Paraguay, near Asunción. CONMEBOL is responsible for the organization and governance of South American football's major international tournaments. With 10 member football associations, it has the fewest members of all the confederations in FIFA.
The Montserrat national football team represents Montserrat in Football. Football is the second most popular sport in Montserrat, after cricket. The team plays at the Blakes Estate Stadium. The Montserrat football team was formed in 1973, and has entered the World Cup qualifiers since the 2002 edition, being eliminated in the first round on each occasion.
The Bermuda national football team represents Bermuda in international football, and is controlled by the Bermuda Football Association, which is a member of the CONCACAF.
The Dominican Republic national football team represents the Dominican Republic in men's international football, and is governed by the Dominican Football Federation. The team is a member of the Caribbean Football Union of CONCACAF, the governing body of football in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
The Bahamas national football team is controlled by the Bahamas Football Association; it was founded in 1967 and joined FIFA in 1968. Bahamas has never qualified for the FIFA World Cup or the CONCACAF Gold Cup. They have been a part of CONCACAF since 1967.
The 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 1994 FIFA World Cup featured 24 teams with one place reserved for the host nation, United States, and one place for the defending champions, Germany. The remaining 22 places were determined by a qualification process, in which 147 teams, from the six FIFA confederations, competed. Most of the successful teams were determined within these confederations, with a limited number of inter-confederation play-offs occurring at the end of the process.
The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup.
Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, OFC (Oceania), and UEFA (Europe) – was allocated a certain number of the 32 places at the tournament. A total of 205 teams entered the qualification competition, with South Africa, as the host, qualifying for the World Cup automatically. The first qualification matches were played on 25 August 2007 and qualification concluded on 18 November 2009. Overall, 2,338 goals were scored over 852 matches, scoring on average 2.74 per match.
The CONCACAF qualification stage for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa consisted of 35 national teams competing for the three berths given automatically to CONCACAF by FIFA. The United States, Mexico and Honduras qualified. The fourth-place finisher, Costa Rica, played a two-game playoff with the CONMEBOL fifth-place finisher, Uruguay, for a possible fourth berth.
The CONCACAF Under-20 Championship is the second longest running international association football event in the North America, Central America and the Caribbean region, CONCACAF, and is the qualification tournament for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The format of the tournament has undergone changes over the years. The tournament proper is currently played with a first round of four round-robin groups from which the top two sides from each group advance to a single-elimination championship round.
The 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 2014 FIFA World Cup featured 32 teams, with one place reserved for the host nation, Brazil. The remaining 31 places were determined by a qualification process, in which the other 207 teams, from the six FIFA confederations, competed. Most of the successful teams were determined within these confederations, with a limited number of inter-confederation play-offs occurring at the end of the process.
The CONCACAF qualification for the 2014 FIFA World Cup consisted of four rounds of competition, in which the 35 member nations competed for three automatic berths at the finals in Brazil.
The 2010 CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifying was the eighth edition of the CONCACAF W Championship, the quadrennial international women's football championship contested by the senior women's national teams of the member associations of CONCACAF, the regional governing body of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Serving as the region's 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Qualifiers, it was played by eight teams from 28 October to 8 November 2010 in Cancún, Mexico. For the second time in its history, it was won by Canada.
The qualification for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup determined which 23 teams joined Canada, the hosts of the 2015 tournament, to play for the Women's World Cup.
Association football is the most popular sport in almost all North, Central American and Caribbean countries, and eleven members of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, CONCACAF, have competed at the sport's biggest event – the men's FIFA World Cup.
The 2014 CONCACAF Women's Championship, the ninth edition of the CONCACAF Women's Championship/Gold Cup/Women's World Cup qualifying tournament, was a women's soccer tournament that took place in the United States between 15 and 26 October 2014. It served as CONCACAF's qualifier to the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. The top three teams qualified directly. The fourth placed team advanced to a play-off against the third placed team of the 2014 Copa América Femenina.
The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification process decided all 24 teams which played in the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, with the hosts France qualifying automatically. It is the eighth FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's football world championship tournament. The tournament is the third to be hosted in Europe, after the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup in Sweden and the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany.
The 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League was 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 twelve to sixteen teams. The group stage of the tournament also served as qualification for the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The final tournament, which decided 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. On 22 September 2020, CONCACAF announced that the final tournament was again rescheduled until June 2021. On 24 February 2021, CONCACAF confirmed the dates for the rescheduled Nations League Finals, 3 and 6 June 2021 with the venue later confirmed as Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado.
The North, Central American and Caribbean section of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification will act as the qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Canada, Mexico and the United States, for national teams which are members of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF). Three direct slots and two inter-confederation play-off slots in the final tournament were available for CONCACAF teams.
