MIAMI (AP) — The governing body for North and Central American and Caribbean soccer says it will have six automatic qualifying spots in the 2030 World Cup and a seventh will be available as part of an intercontinental playoff.
CONCACAF made its announcement Friday, although FIFA does not appear to have announced each confederation's allocation of berths and the president of the South American confederation CONMEBOL has proposed expanding the tournament yet again to 64 nations.
FIFA's media office said in an email it was looking into whether confederations' allocation had been decided.
CONCACAF said Friday that qualifying will start in September 2027 with its teams ranked 14th through 35th playing a home-and-home, total-goals first round.
The 11 winners will advance to the second round along with its top 13-ranked nations. The 24 teams will be split into six four-team groups and each nation will play six matches, in October and November 2027, and March 2028.
The top two teams in each group advance to a 12-nation final round, to be played in June 2028, and September and October 2029. There will be three final-round groups, and each nation will play six matches. The top two teams in each group will qualify for a 2030 World Cup that will be primarily in Spain, Portugal and Morocco, with one game each in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
The top two third-place teams advance to a CONCACAF home-and-home, total-goals playoff in November 2029. The winner will advance to FIFA's intercontinental playoffs.
With the expansion of the World Cup from 32 teams in 2022 to 48 this year, CONCACAF doubled its automatic berths to six. United States, Mexico and Canada received automatic spots as co-hosts, Curaçao, Haiti and Panama earned berths in qualifying.
Jamaica has a chance to earn a seventh berth next month in playoffs with New Caledonia and Congo.
CONCACAF also said its 2027 Nations League semifinals and final will be at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
Only subscribers can view and post comments on articles.
Already a subscriber? Login Here
You’ve likely known your closest friends for years — but when was the last time you met some… Read moreMaking Friends in Your 60s and Beyond
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Sorry, an error occurred.
Already Subscribed!
Cancel anytime
Thank you .
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful! Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
| Rate: | |
| Begins: | |
| Transaction ID: |
A receipt was sent to your email.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.