2024/25 Concacaf Nations League: All You Need to Know | OneFootball

MIAMI – The 2024/25 Concacaf Nations League kicks off on September 4, featuring the Confederation’s 41 men's senior national teams squaring off over the course of the next seven months across League A, League B and League C.

The fourth edition of the tournament will be played during the FIFA Match Windows of September, October, and November 2024. The Finals, where a new champion will be crowned, are scheduled for March 2025.

Here is everything you need to know about the 2024/25 Concacaf Nations League.

What

The 2024/25 Concacaf Nations League is the latest edition of Concacaf’s men’s national team competition and will involve 41 countries.

The participating nations are as follows:

League A (16 teams):

League B (16 teams):

League C (9 teams):

For more information on how each nation qualified, click HERE.

When

The 2024/25 Concacaf Nations League will be played during the September, October, and November 2024 FIFA Match Windows.

For League A, the Quarterfinals will occur in November 2024. The CNL Finals, where the competition’s fourth champion will be crowned, will take place in March 2025 at a venue to be announced.

Here are the dates by phase:

The competition’s complete match schedule is available HERE.

History

In March 2018, Concacaf announced that from 2019 onwards, the Concacaf Nations League competition will be played in the official FIFA match windows in September, October, and November, with a Final Championship to be played in March of the following year.

The Concacaf Nations League is played in a three-league format (A, B, and C), with the teams distributed into the Leagues according to the results of the preceding edition (2023/24). A promotion and relegation system allows teams to ascend a league for the following edition.

Teams in League A can challenge for the trophy by advancing to the CNL Finals. The tournament also allows teams to qualify for the Concacaf Gold Cup by earning a berth directly or advancing to the preliminary round.

The United States has won the previous three editions of the Concacaf Nations League Finals and is the defending champion.

Champions

Format

League A includes 16 teams, with the four highest-ranked nations (based on the Concacaf Rankings) advancing directly to the Quarterfinal round. For Group Stage play, the 12 remaining teams have been split into two groups of six and will play in a “Swiss style” league system, with each team playing four games (two at home and two away).

League B features 16 teams divided into four groups of four teams. Each team will play every team in its group twice, for a total of six matches per team.

League C includes nine teams divided into three groups of three teams. During the FIFA Match Windows of September and October, each team will play every team in its group twice, for a total of four matches per team.

Each group in Leagues B and C will be played at a centralized venue instead of the previous home-and-away format. This format change will alleviate some of the travel challenges that Member Associations face due to our region's unique geography and allow them to focus on delivering the best possible football.

The following are the groups for the 2024/25 Concacaf Nations League:

League A

Bye to the Quarterfinals: Mexico, United States, Panama, and Canada

League B

League C:

Road to 2025 CNL Finals

After Group Stage play in September and October 2024, the first and second-place finishers of each group (four teams in total) in League A will advance to the Quarterfinals, where they will join the four top-ranked League A teams.

The Quarterfinals will be played in a home-and-away format, with the aggregate score winner in each matchup advancing to the 2025 Concacaf Nations League Finals.

The pairings for the Quarterfinals will be determined as follows:

Promotion and relegation:

Promotion and relegation between Leagues will take place at the conclusion of the competition, as follows:

Qualification for the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup

As previously announced, the 2024/25 Concacaf Nations League will serve as the qualifiers for next summer’s 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup. Concacaf will announce the exact qualifying criteria at a later date.