2023–24 CONCACAF Nations League A

2023–24 CONCACAF Nations League A
The 2023–24 CONCACAF Nations League A is the top division of the 2023–24 edition of the CONCACAF Nations League, the third season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 41 member associations of CONCACAF. The initial group stage is being held from 7 September 2022 to 17 October 2023.
League A will culminate with the 2024 CONCACAF Nations League Finals in March 2024 to crown the champions of the CONCACAF Nations League.
This edition of the CONCACAF Nations League A serves to determine the six CONCACAF representatives that will qualify as guests for the 2024 Copa América in the United States. The four quarter-finals winners and two play-in winners between the four quarter-finals losers will qualify to the CONMEBOL tournament.
Format
Starting from this edition, the League A was increased from twelve to sixteen teams and a new quarter-final round was introduced. The group stage became two groups of six teams instead of the four groups of three teams of previous editions, and four teams received a direct bye to the quarter-finals. The twelve lowest-ranked teams in the CONCACAF Rankings as of March 2023 entered the group stage and were divided into two groups of six teams, with each team playing four matches against group opponents (two at home and two away) on a Swiss-system format. The top two teams from each group advanced to the quarter-finals, and were joined by the four top-ranked teams in the CONCACAF Rankings as of March 2023. The quarter-finals will be played on a two-legged home-and-away basis, with the four winners advancing to the Nations League Finals and qualifying directly to the 2024 Copa América, while the four losers will play two single-legged play-in matches for the last two berths to the CONMEBOL tournament.
The Nations League Finals retains its previous format of a semi-final round, third place play-off and final match to determine the champions.
Teams
A total of sixteen national teams contest the League A, including the twelve sides from the 2022–23 season and four promoted from the 2022–23 League B. As a result of the expansion to 16 teams, there were no teams relegated from the previous season, so the twelve teams from the 2022-23 season remained in the League A for this edition.
Team changes
The following were the team changes of League A from the 2022–23 season:
Nicaragua originally qualified for promotion to League A as winners of League B Group C, but were disqualified due to fielding an ineligible player. As a result, they were replaced on June 12, 2023, by Trinidad and Tobago. Nicaragua replaced Trinidad and Tobago in League B.
Teams promoted from League B
Cuba, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago returned to the League A after a one-season absence. Guatemala reached the top division of the CONCACAF Nations League for the first time after starting in League C in the inaugural edition and moving up from League B the previous season.
Seeding
The pots were confirmed on 2 May 2023, with the lowest twelve League A ranked teams, based on the CONCACAF Rankings as of 31 March 2023, being split into six pots of two teams. The top four ranked teams (Mexico, the United States, Canada and Costa Rica) were directly seeded in the quarter-finals.
Draw
The group stage draw was held on 16 May 2023, 19:00 EDT, in Miami, Florida, United States. where the twelve involved teams were drawn into two group of six. The draw began by randomly selecting a team from Pot 1 and placing them in Group A and then selecting the remaining team from Pot 1 and placling them in Group B. The draw continued with the same procedure done for the remaining pots.
The draw resulted in the following groups:
Group stage
The fixture list was confirmed by CONCACAF on 6 July 2023. All match times are in EDT (UTC−4) as listed by CONCACAF (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Group A
Group B
Quarter-finals
The quarter-finals pairings were determined based on the CONCACAF Rankings as of 18 October 2023 for the four pre-seeded teams and the group stage results for the winners and runners-up of each group. The four pre-seeded teams that received a direct bye to the quarter-finals (Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States) had the chance to decide the order of legs. The winners will advance to the Nations League Finals and qualify for the 2024 Copa América, while the losers will advance to the Copa América qualifying play-offs.
The match-ups will be as follows:
Quarter-final 1 (QF1): Fourth-ranked seeded team vs. Best-ranked group winner
Quarter-final 2 (QF2): Third-ranked seeded team vs. Next best-ranked group winner
Quarter-final 3 (QF3): Second-ranked seeded team vs. Best-ranked group runner-up
Quarter-final 4 (QF4): First-ranked seeded team vs. Next best-ranked group runner-up
Summary
The first legs will be played on 16 and 17 November, and the second legs will be played on 20 and 21 November 2023.
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Matches
The fixture list was confirmed by CONCACAF on 6 July 2023. All match times are in EST (UTC−5) as listed by CONCACAF (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Winner advances to the Finals and qualifies for the 2024 Copa América. Loser advances to the play-in.
Winner advances to the Finals and qualifies for the 2024 Copa América. Loser advances to the play-in.
Winner advances to the Finals and qualifies for the 2024 Copa América. Loser advances to the play-in.
Winner advances to the Finals and qualifies for the 2024 Copa América. Loser advances to the play-in.
Nations League Finals
Seeding
Bracket
Semi-finals
Third place play-off
Final
Goalscorers
Notes
References
External links
League A
Current association football seasons