The 2017 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship was the 5th edition of the CONCACAF Under-20 Championship (26th edition if all eras included), the men's under-20 international football tournament organized by CONCACAF. It was hosted in Costa Rica between 17 February and 5 March 2017.[1]
^On 28 October 2016, FIFA suspended the National Football Federation of Guatemala for political interference by the Government of Guatemala. Until the suspension is lifted, Guatemalan teams are not permitted to participate in international competitions.[3]CONCACAF had set the deadline of 20 November 2016 for the suspension to be lifted, otherwise by rule, Guatemala would be disqualified from the 2017 CONCACAF U-20 Championship, and any replacement team or revision to the tournament format would be discussed once the deadline had passed.[4] On 22 November, CONCACAF announced that Panama, fourth place in Central America qualifying, would take the place of Guatemala, third place in Central America qualifying.[5]
The draw took place on November 29, 2016 at 18:00 CST (UTC−6) at El Cubo, Estadio Nacional, San José, Costa Rica, and was streamed live via CONCACAF.com.[5][6]
Different from previous tournaments, the 12 teams were drawn into three groups of four teams in the group stage. Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States were seeded into each of the three groups.
United States, as the best-ranked CONCACAF team in the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup, were seeded in position B1.
Costa Rica, as hosts, were seeded in position C1.
The remaining nine teams were allocated to pots 2–4 designed to ensure balanced and competitive groups weighted equally by region. They were drawn in order and placed in the group position drawn from Pots A, B and C.[5]
The top two teams from each group in the group stage advance to the classification stage, where the six teams are drawn into two groups of three teams. The positions of each group winner and runner-up from the group stage were then drawn in group pairs, randomly into the two groups (D and E) for the classification stage.
The top two teams from each group in the classification stage qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup, with the group winners also advancing to the final to decide the champions of the CONCACAF U-20 Championship.
Each squad can contain 20 players (including two goalkeepers).
Group stage
The top two teams from each group in the group stage advance to the classification stage.
Tiebreakers (for both group stage and classification stage)
The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
Greater number of points in matches between the tied teams;
Greater goal difference in matches between the tied teams (if more than two teams finish equal on points);
Greater number of goals scored in matches among the tied teams (if more than two teams finish equal in points);
Greater goal difference in all group matches;
Greater number of goals scored in all group matches;
The top two teams from each group in the classification stage qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup, with the group winners also advancing to the final to decide the champions of the CONCACAF U-20 Championship.
1Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.
Qualified teams for Central American and Caribbean Games
The competition was used to decide the two teams from the Caribbean Football Union which would qualify for the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games. As none of the five Caribbean teams reached the classification stage, all teams were ranked by their group stage performance.
