CONCACAF on Thursday conducted the official draw for the 2023 Road to CONCACAF W Gold Cup.
The live event in Miami was hosted by sports anchor Carmen Boquin and included the participation of Concacaf President and FIFA Vice President Victor Montagliani, as well as former players Maylee Atthin-Johnson (Trinidad and Tobago) and Wendy Acosta (Costa Rica).
The road to the first-ever CONCACAF W Gold Cup will begin this September, after the conclusion of the FIFA Women’s World Cup which takes place this summer in Australia and New Zealand, and will include a record six competing CONCACAF women’s national teams.
Thirty-five CONCACAF women’s national teams, excluding the two who will compete in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games Women’s Football Tournament (USA and Canada or Jamaica), have been split into three leagues according to their CONCACAF Women’s Ranking as of March 2023, and sub-divided into groups.
The 2023 Road to CONCACAF W Gold Cup groups are as follows:
League A (nine top-ranked teams divided into three groups of three)
Group A: Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, and Puerto Rico.
Group B: Canada or Jamaica, Panama, and Guatemala.
Group C: Costa Rica, Haiti, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.
League B (next 12 best-ranked teams divided into three groups of four teams)
Group A: Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, Suriname, and Dominica.
Group B: El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Martinique.
Group C: Dominican Republic, Bermuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Barbados.
League C (14 remaining teams divided into two groups of four teams and two groups of three teams)
Group A: Belize, Aruba, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Bonaire.
Group B: Cuba, Saint Lucia, Guadeloupe, and Saint Maarten.
Group C: US Virgin Islands, Grenada, and Bahamas.
Group D: Curacao, Cayman Islands, and Anguilla.
After home and away group stage play, within each League, in the FIFA Women’s International match windows of September, October, and November 2023, the top finishers in each of the League A groups (three teams) will qualify for the 2024 CONCACAF W Gold Cup Group Stage.
Furthermore, the second-place finishers in each of the League A groups (three teams) and the first-place finishers in each of the League B groups (three teams) will advance to the 2024 CONCACAF W Gold Cup Prelims.
CONCACAF will announce the 2023 Road to W Gold Cup schedule at a later date.
2024 CONCACAF W GOLD CUP
The W Gold Cup 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 inaugural edition will be played between February 17 – March 10, 2024, in the United States, and will include a six-team Prelims, a 12-team group stage, and a three-round Knockout Stage.
2024 W Gold Cup Competition Format and Dates
W Gold Cup Prelims: February 17, 2024
(Qualifies three teams into the Group Stage)
The Prelims will be composed of a single round. The six participants, to be determined via the 2023 Road to W Gold Cup, will be divided into three pairings according to their CONCACAF Women’s Ranking of December 2023 (published after the last match of the Road to CONCACAF W Gold Cup), as follows:
- Highest-ranked team vs lowest-ranked team
- Second-ranked team vs Fifth-ranked team
- Third-ranked team vs Fourth-ranked team
After single-match elimination play, the winning team in each of the matchups will advance to the 2024 CONCACAF W Gold Cup Group Stage.
Group Stage: February 20-28, 2024
(Qualifies eight teams into the Knockout Stage)
The 2024 W Gold Cup Group Stage will include the participation of eight CONCACAF Member Associations and four CONMEBOL guests. CONMEBOL’s teams have been invited as part of a strategic collaboration agreement between both Confederations.
For the Group Stage, teams will be split into three groups of four. Each team will play every other team in their group once, for a total of three matches per team.
The 12 nations participating in the group stage will be determined as follows:
- 2022 CONCACAF W Championship champion (United States)
- CONCACAF Olympic Play-In winner (Canada OR Jamaica)
- Road to Concacaf W Gold Cup League A Group winners (three teams)
- Concacaf W Gold Cup Prelims winners (three teams)
- CONMEBOL guests (four teams): Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, and Paraguay (determined based on the results of the 2022 Women’s Copa America).
Knockout Stage: March 2-10, 2024
Following Group Stage play, the three group winners and runners-up, plus the two best third-place finishers will advance to the Knockout Stage (eight teams in total). The Knockout Stage will be played in a single match direct elimination format and will be comprised of Quarter-finals (March 2-3), Semi-finals (March 6), and a Final, on Sunday, March 10, 2024.
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.
