The 2022 FIFA World Cup is just around the corner, which means all national teams are already looking ahead to the Concacaf draw procedure for World Cup qualifying, especially now that there is a new format.
USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Honduras will skip the first round of the qualifiers as the rest of Concacaf will fight for the right to earn that highly-coveted 2022 World Cup berth. Some of them for the first time in their history.
The World Cup qualifiers for the 2022 edition are going to be one for the ages. The new draw will include all 35 member nations (divided into 6 groups) across the Caribbean, North America, and Central America.
First Round Draw: Date And How To Watch
The draw for the first round of the Concacaf World Cup qualifyiers will take place on August, 19 at the FIFA headquarters (Zurich, Switzerland), at 1:00 p.m. E.T and can be streamed live through FIFA.Com.
Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers Draw Pots For The First Round
Pot 1: El Salvador, Canada, Curaçao, Panama, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago
Pot 2: Antigua and Barbuda, Guatemala, St Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic
Pot 3: Grenada, Barbados, Guyana, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Bermuda, Belize
Pot 4: St Lucia, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Montserrat, Dominica, Cayman Islands
Pot 5: Bahamas, Aruba, Turks and Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla
Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers Draw Pots For The Final Round
Pot A: Mexico, USA, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Honduras, Winner of A vs. F, Winner of B vs. E, Winner of C vs. D
Pot B: Teams 1-8
New Format
The 30 lowest-ranked teams as of July 16 will be divided into 5 pots. The 6 teams with the higher ranking (El Salvador, Canada, Curaçao, Panama, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago) will be placed in groups A to F, respectively, while the remaining teams will be split into 5 pots for the Draw.
Each team will play 4 games in the first round, 2 home and 2 away. As we mentioned before, USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Honduras (the five highest-ranked Concacaf teams), will skip the first phase and go directly to the final round of the qualifiers.
The final round of the World Cup qualifiers will consist of the six group winners plus the aforementioned nations to play in a two-leg elimination phase in three pairings. For the first time, it'll have a home-and-away round-robin format. There will be another draw for the Final Round on a date TBD.
