League A: 7 September – 17 October 2023 Leagues B and C: 7 September – 21 November 2023 League A quarter-finals: 16–21 November 2023 Nations League Finals: 21–24 March 2024
The 2023–24 CONCACAF Nations League was the third season of the CONCACAF Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 41 member associations of CONCACAF. The group stage was held in September, October, and November 2023, and the Finals were played from 21 to 24 March 2024 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The competition saw a format change, with League A now featuring sixteen teams in two groups of a Swiss system, followed by a quarter-final round. In addition, the Nations League also served as qualification for CONCACAF teams for the 2024 Copa América, which is being held between June and July of this year in the United States.
The United States were the two-time defending champions and successfully defended their title in the final.
Format
On 28 February 2023, CONCACAF announced a format change for the 2023–24 season of the CONCACAF Nations League. As a result, no teams were relegated from the 2022–23 season.[2][3]
The size of League A was increased from twelve to sixteen teams, and
now featured a quarter-final round. The twelve lowest-ranked teams in the CONCACAF Rankings of March 2023 entered the group stage, now using a modified group format. The teams were divided into two groups of six teams, with each team playing four matches against group opponents (two at home and two away). The top four teams advanced to the quarter-finals, and were joined by the four top-ranked teams in the CONCACAF Rankings of March 2023. The teams advancing from the group stage were drawn into ties against the top-ranked teams, which were played on a two-legged home-and-away basis. The four quarter-finals winners advanced to the Nations League Finals, which retained its previous format of a semi-final round, third place play-off and final match to determine the champions.
League A also determined the six CONCACAF teams which qualified as guests for the 2024 Copa América in the United States. The quarter-finals winners qualified directly to the tournament, while the losers advanced to a qualifying play-off, featuring two single-leg matches.
League B remained unchanged, featuring sixteen teams divided into four groups of four. Each team played six matches in a double round-robin home-and-away format (three at home and three away). Following the format change, League C was reduced from thirteen to nine teams and from four to three groups. Teams were divided into three groups of three teams, with each team playing four matches in a double round-robin home-and-away format (two at home and two away).[2]
Promotion and relegation resumed for the 2023–24 season, with the fifth and sixth placed teams in League A and the fourth-placed teams in League B being relegated for the next season. The group winners of Leagues B and C were promoted, as were the best second-placed team of League C.[2]
Tiebreakers
The ranking of teams in each group was determined as follows (Regulations Article 12.4):[4]
Points obtained in all group matches (three points for a win, one for a draw, zero for a loss);
If two or more teams still tied based on the above criteria, their rankings were determined as follows:
Points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
Goal difference in the matches played between the teams in question;
Number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;
Number of away goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question (if the tie was only between two teams);
Lowest number of disciplinary points in all group matches (only one deduction could be applied to a player in a single match):
Yellow card: 1 points;
Indirect red card (second yellow card): 3 points;
Direct red card: 4 points;
Yellow card and direct red card: 5 points;
Drawing of lots.
Entrants
All of CONCACAF's 41 member associations entered in the competition. Teams were divided into leagues based on their results of the 2022–23 season, while the pots were determined by the CONCACAF Ranking of March 2023.[5] The four top-ranked teams in League A received a bye to the quarter-finals. The group stage draw was held on 16 May 2023, 19:00 EDT, in Miami, Florida, United States.[2][6][7] The pots were confirmed on 2 May 2023, with League A split into six pots of two teams, League B split into four pots of four teams and League C split into three pots of three teams.[8]
Nicaragua originally qualified for promotion to League A as winners of League B Group C, but were disqualified due to fielding an ineligible player. As a result, they were replaced by Trinidad and Tobago as the best runner-up in League B on 12 June 2023. Nicaragua replaced Trinidad and Tobago in League B.[9]
The quarter-finals pairings were determined based on the CONCACAF Rankings published after the October 2023 FIFA Match Window for the four pre-seeded teams and the group stage results for the winners and runners-up of each group.[4]
The four teams were ranked based on their results in both legs of the quarter-finals to determine the semi-final matchups. The first seed played the fourth seed and the second seed played the third seed.[14]
An official "Top Scorer Award" was also handed out by CONCACAF, utilising a points system that took into consideration which league the player in question was a part of and weighed their goals accordingly. Each goal scored in League A was awarded 2 points, goals in League B 1.5 points, and goals in League C 1 point. With seven goals for Guyana in League B, Omari Glasgow won the award with a total of 10.5 points.[1]
