This new and exciting tournament is the region’s premier competition for women’s senior national teams and is a key part of the "Concacaf W" women's football strategy the Confederation launched in 2019.
The tournament will include a six-team preliminary round and a 12-team group stage, followed by a three round knockout stage. The Final, on Sunday, March 10, will crown Concacaf’s best women’s national team and will conclude a cycle of elite women’s football in the region, which also included the 2022 Concacaf W Qualifiers and 2022 Concacaf W Championship.
The 12-team W Gold Cup Group Stage will consist of eight Concacaf teams and four CONMEBOL guest teams. Thus far, the United States secured a berth by winning the 2022 Concacaf W Championship. They will be joined by the winner of the Concacaf Olympic Play-In (Canada or Jamaica) and a further six Concacaf teams who qualify through earlier rounds.
The CONMEBOL guest participants have been determined based on the 2022 Women’s Copa America.
“This new Concacaf W Gold Cup will be the flagship event for women’s national team football in our region and will showcase some of the very best women’s football in Concacaf and the world,” Concacaf President and FIFA Vice President Victor Montagliani.
“The tournament will be a celebration of the work we have done so far, hand-in-hand with our federations, implementing our groundbreaking Concacaf W strategy, which was launched in 2019 to prioritize the growth of women’s football at all levels.
“While there remains more work to do, I believe we are now truly beginning to see the benefits of that strategy, not least through the performances of the record six Concacaf teams who have qualified for the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.”
As such, CFU will take the reins of the tournament, which will be rebranded as the CFU Club Shield for the 2024 edition and onwards, and will qualify two clubs into the Concacaf Caribbean Cup. While CFU will organize and manage the competition, Concacaf will provide support for its delivery, as per the terms of what is viewed as a significant transition agreement.
According to Concacaf President, Victor Montagliani, this decision reflects a collaborative effort between Concacaf and the CFU to further bolster the growth of clubs and leagues, and football as a whole, across the Caribbean region.
“The development of regional club football is a major priority for Concacaf and alongside our Caribbean member associations, we are dedicated to fully supporting the growth of clubs and leagues across a region known for its passion for the sport. This collaboration with the CFU is a testament to the leadership of the CFU President and highlights the ambition we share to deliver opportunities that will take the game in the Caribbean to the next level. We look forward with great anticipation to supporting the delivery of the inaugural CFU Club Shield later this year," Montagliani shared.
His CFU counterpart Randolph Harris expressed his delight to take the reins.
“The CFU is extremely pleased to be taking over the management and organization of the Club Shield, and to rebrand it as an official CFU competition. We welcome the cooperation from Concacaf in ushering in this new era of the CFU delivering an important club competition and we look forward to continuing to work closely with the Confederation to grow club and league football in the region. We are excited to deliver a competition that is as robust as any on the field of play and to delivering administration that meets and exceeds the mark,” said Harris.
Established in 2018, the Caribbean Club Shield has a primary objective of advancing professional football throughout the Caribbean. Participation is open to semi-professional and amateur teams holding current championship titles in their respective domestic leagues.
The tournament format involves up to 16 clubs, grouped into four sets of four. Winners of each group progress to the semifinals, with the ultimate finalists earning coveted berths in the Concacaf Caribbean Cup, subsequently qualifying for the Concacaf Champions Cup.
In 2023, Suriname’s SV Robinhood emerged victorious in both the Caribbean Club Shield and the Caribbean Cup. The team has solidified their position as the most successful team in the history of the Caribbean Club Shield, boasting two championship titles.
This year's edition is set to unfold from July 25 to August 4, 2024. The venue for this year's competition will be announced in short order.
The ambitious plan could come to fruition as a part of a unique set of circumstances that surround the competition. As hosts of the tournament Canada, Mexico and the United States will automatically be granted spots. The situation will leave the region’s normal three and a half spots available to Concacaf’s other teams. In addition, however, because it won the bid to host the tournament, Concacaf will receive another half spot. Half spots are confederation playoffs between teams, which sees the winners advancing to the tournament.
According to Montagliani, a major part of the confederation’s focus will be on ensuring the region is able to take full advantage of the situation.
“What has been confirmed is that we have six direct spots and then we have a half a spot, which means we go to a playoff. Now, because we also won the bid and we won the right to host the World Cup, we gained another half a spot. So, that means we have six plus two halves,” Montagliani explained to the SportsMax Zone in an interview on Monday.
“I’ve been very clear that one of the reasons we are investing in the League of Nations, expanded Gold Cup and all the things that we are doing is because we really want to set that bar that we have eight Concacaf nations at the 2026 World Cup if we can win those play-off spots."
It was announced on Friday after an official signing in New York.
The partnership is expected to spur the growth of the sport at all levels, inspiring more people to take up football, as well as boost Concacaf tournaments for men, women, and youth of both national teams and clubs. Additionally, the two organizations will collaborate to strengthen and advance Concacaf football development initiatives, with a focus on providing children and youth with access to the sport in all 41 Concacaf federations.
The timing of the partnership comes as the region gears up to host major football tournaments in the coming years, including the men’s and women’s Concacaf Champions Cups, the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup, and the next FIFA World Cup in 2026, which will be jointly hosted by three Concacaf member federations – Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
In line with PIF’s focus on inclusivity and youth as key pillars of its sponsorship platform, the partnership will also support Concacaf in its efforts to increase the number of official youth championships it delivers in the coming years. This will provide further opportunities for emerging talents in the region, including through the Concacaf under-15, under-17, and under-20 championships for both men and women and the under-17 and under-20 competitions serving as qualification tournaments for FIFA U17 and U20 World Cups, respectively.
The Concacaf partnership adds to PIF’s growing portfolio of partnerships across tennis, golf, football, and electric motorsports, which focuses on investing in people, projects, and initiatives that embrace PIF’s four sponsorship pillars of inclusivity, sustainability, youth, and technology.
Concacaf president and FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani expressed delight at the partnership.
“We are very pleased to announce this new strategic partnership, which will support the confederation in developing all levels of football across our region,” Montagliani said.
“This is a pivotal time for PIF to connect with football in Concacaf. Interest in the sport is growing rapidly in our confederation and will reach new heights as major Concacaf competitions take place over the next two years and we get closer to the biggest-ever FIFA World Cup taking place in our region in 2026,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mohammed AlSayyad, Head of Corporate Brand at PIF, also beamed about the prospects.
“We are delighted to partner with Concacaf as the confederation enters an exciting period. Together, we will advance a series of initiatives to create a positive and lasting impact across all Concacaf competitions. As PIF expands its portfolio of inspiring sponsorships, our commitment to investing in sport remains constant,” AlSayyad shared.
The PIF and Concacaf partnership will also strengthen the growth and development of existing Concacaf initiatives. These include Concacaf’s “Bigger Game,” which leverages the popularity of football as a vehicle to deliver sport and education programs and initiatives in local communities across its 41-member federations and aims to build community partnerships, improve awareness, and amplify the voices of program beneficiaries.
Wint was responding to CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani’s comments about the possibility of the six-team final round going through changes because of the delays in sports on account of the worldwide spread of Coronavirus.
Montagliani, who witnessed FIFA’s cancellation of friendly windows in March and next month, is doubtful that matches can be played in September when the hexagonal section of CONCACAF qualifying is set to resume.
According to Montagliani, the hexagonal may involve more teams but that how that would look would depend on a new calendar coming from FIFA.
Wint explained that playing more games would mean a greater financial burden that the JFF had not bargained for.
“It depends on how the fixtures are set up because we do have a plan in our heads that we are approaching corporate Jamaica with, and that is to play 10 games. If we are having more games with a shorter time, then you might have some difficulty in acquiring the services of your best players, the facilities that you might need may not be available to you if you have more games, and the timeline in which to complete these things could cause us not to be prepared as properly as we would have wanted,” explained Wint.
Teams vying for a place at the World Cup in Qatar were to be given the opportunity to play in the CONCACAF six-team final and Jamaica, who now stand at fourth in the region, were preparing for that eventuality. The cut-off point for those rankings to count would have been June.
However, with teams not getting the opportunity to play for a spot in that six because of the COVID-19 issues, CONCACAF may be forced to make changes. As it stands, Mexico, the United States, Costa Rica, and Honduras are also among the six top sides.
“It might be disadvantageous to us,” said Wint, although he was keen to point out that a solution that was reasonable would not be met with opposition from the JFF.
The CONMEBOL Copa America 2024 will be played in the United States in the summer of 2024 and will include 10 CONMEBOL teams and the six best Concacaf teams, as guests. This traditional CONMEBOL tournament will be co-organized by both confederations.
The six Concacaf national teams will have the opportunity to qualify for this competition through the 2023/24 Concacaf Nations League.
For CONMEBOL, this agreement will support its men's national teams in their preparation for the upcoming World Cup through an expanded Copa America featuring six elite Concacaf teams, organized in the region that will host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Similarly, this agreement will allow Concacaf to provide more high-quality competition for its men's national teams over the next two years, including the conclusion of the 2022/23 Concacaf Nations League, the 2023 Concacaf Gold Cup and the 2023/24 Concacaf Nations League.
For women's national teams, Concacaf has invited the top four CONMEBOL national teams to participate in the 2024 Concacaf W Gold Cup. The inaugural edition of this 12-team tournament, which is a key part of Concacaf’s new women's national team ecosystem, will be played in the United States.
The two Concacaf teams that will participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics (United States and Jamaica or Canada) will qualify directly for the 2024 Concacaf W Gold Cup. The remaining six Concacaf teams will be determined through the 2023 Road to Concacaf W Gold Cup.
The four guest CONMEBOL teams that will participate have been determined based on the results of the 2022 Women’s Copa America: Brazil (champion) Colombia (runner-up), Argentina (third place) and Paraguay (fourth place).
CONMEBOL and Concacaf will also organize a centralized "final four" style club competition featuring the best clubs from the respective confederations. The four participating teams (two from each confederation) will qualify through existing CONMEBOL and Concacaf club competitions and the two confederations are working towards the first edition of this tournament being played in 2024.
“CONMEBOL and Concacaf are united by historical and affective ties. But above all, we are united by the passion, characteristic of all the Americas, for football and sports,” said CONMEBOL President Alejandro Domínguez.
“We are determined to renew and expand our joint initiatives and projects. We want this passion to translate into more and better competitions and for football and its values to grow and strengthen throughout the hemisphere. Without a doubt, both confederations believe in big, and we will work with this orientation.”
Meanwhile, Victor Montagliani, President of Concacaf, believes this new initiative will be a boon to both confederations.
“This is a partnership to support the ongoing growth of men’s and women’s football in Concacaf and CONMEBOL, and will truly be of mutual benefit to both Confederations,” he said.
“Working hand in hand with CONMEBOL, we will deliver elite competitions that will provide more opportunities for our federations, and that we know passionate fans want to see. We look forward to working together to ensure that football in both regions continues to thrive.”
With the pandemic effectively shutting down international football, several match days were lost, and some teams were not afforded the chance to improve their rankings. The governing body was therefore forced to come up with a new format for the Concacaf Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
The new format comprises three rounds and provides all participating member associations with a chance to compete for the Confederation’s three and a half World Cup spots.
The first round will be played between the Concacaf Member Associations ranked 6-35 based on the FIFA rankings as of July 16, 2020.
The 30 men’s national teams will be drawn into six groups of five in a seeded draw. The six highest-ranked teams, El Salvador, Canada, Curacao, Panama, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago will be pre-seeded into groups A to F respectively.
The teams will play every other team in their group once, playing a total of four matches; two home and two away. At the end of the round, the six group winners will progress to the second round.
The second round will be played between the group winners from the first round, with the matchups pre-determined as follows:
Group A winner vs Group F winner, Group B winner vs Group E winner, Group C winner vs Group D winner.
The teams will play home and away in a direct elimination format. The three winners will progress to the final round. The final round of the Concacaf Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will see the three winners from the second round join the Concacaf Member Associations ranked 1-5 based on the FIFA rankings as of July 16th, 2020. The national teams ranked 1-5 had already gained enough FIFA ranking points to guarantee their place in the final round prior to the development of a new format.
The final round teams are Mexico, USA, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Honduras. At the end of the final round, the top three finishing teams will qualify directly to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. The fourth-placed team will qualify for the FIFA Intercontinental Playoff.
“Everybody’s world changed in the middle of March with the pandemic. Then we had lost the March windows, the June windows and now the September windows, so a lot of things were factored in,” Montagliani told the SportsMax Zone, in an interview on Tuesday.
“It’s not just about the World Cup qualifiers. We had to look at the entire men’s calendar. We had to look at the Gold Cup qualifying that is still under way. We had to look at the Nation’s League final four, which is yet to be completed and we also had to look at Nation’s League 2.0, which was set for ‘21 but will now be played in ’22,” he added.
“We looked at the number of games that needed to be played and the old format, which was not able to be completed in full because not everyone was able to complete their ranking requirements.”
Montagliani explained that the organisation also noted that the old format was not economically viable, and all the games squeezed into a tight time period would have proven to be an additional burden.
“I think it has something for everyone and I’m quite happy and proud of our group in coming together in a difficult time and coming up with an excellent solution.”