Jamaica’s national football team, the Reggae Boyz, will lead Group E in the second round of CONCACAF qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, set to be hosted jointly by Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
CONCACAF revealed the draw for the qualifiers at FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, presenting the groups for the second round of qualification.
Jamaica will compete against Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Dominica, and the winners of the first-round match between the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), scheduled for March 2024.
First English-speaking Caribbean team to participate in the World Cup
The Reggae Boyz, coached by René Simões, made history as the first English-speaking Caribbean team to participate in the World Cup during the 1998 tournament in France.
Since then, Jamaica has not qualified for the World Cup, but the team boasts several players who regularly feature in top leagues like the English Premier League, Major League Soccer, and the United Soccer League, which gives them the talent pool to aim for a World Cup berth in the next two years.
Other English-speaking Caribbean teams in the qualifiers include Trinidad & Tobago, which is part of Group B with Costa Rica, Grenada, St Kitts & Nevis, and the Bahamas. Group A consists of Honduras, Antigua & Barbuda, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, and Cuba, while Group C features Haiti, Aruba, Barbados, Curaçao, and St Lucia.
Guyana joins Group D
Guyana, promoted to the top-flight of the CONCACAF Nations League last year, joins Group D alongside Panama, Belize, Montserrat, and Nicaragua. Group F includes El Salvador, Puerto Rico, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and the winners of the first-round match between Turks & Caicos Islands and Anguilla.
As Canada, Mexico, and the United States are hosting the 2026 World Cup, they receive automatic qualification, and the remaining 30 teams in the confederation will compete in the CONCACAF qualifiers. The first round of qualification takes place in March this year among the four lowest-ranked teams, including BVI, USVI, TCI, and Anguilla.
The second round will feature single round-robin matches with six group winners and six runners-up advancing to the 12-team third round of qualification.
The second round of qualifiers will span two match days in June this year and another two match days in June next year.
