The 2024 CONCACAF W Gold Cup qualification competition, also known as the Road to CONCACAF W Gold Cup, was a women's football tournament that was contested by 34 of the senior women's national teams of the member associations of CONCACAF. The competition decided six of the twelve participating teams of the 2024 CONCACAF W Gold Cup, the inaugural edition of the W Gold Cup.
The league stage of the qualifying was played from September 20 to December 5, 2023, with the three League A group winners qualifying for the final tournament. Three additional teams qualified via the play-off round, contested on February 17, 2024, by the League A group runners-up and the League B group winners. These six teams joined the two CONCACAF teams qualified for the Olympics and four guests at the W Gold Cup, to be contested from February 20 to March 10, 2024.[1][2]
Format
On December 10, 2020, the CONCACAF Council approved the structure and calendar of the competition. The qualification competition, known as the "Road to Concacaf W Gold Cup", began with the group stage, featuring 34 women's national teams of CONCACAF split into three leagues (A, B and C). Each league featured three groups, containing three teams each in League A, and four teams each in Leagues B and C. The teams in each group played against each other home-and-away in a double round-robin format. The top three teams in League A qualified directly for the W Gold Cup. The three group runners-up of League A and the three League B group winners participated in a play-off on February 17, 2024, to compete for the final three spots at the W Gold Cup. The play-offs were originally planned to take place in March 2024,[2] but were moved to February to accommodate the W Gold Cup final tournament also being moved (from June to February and March 2024).[3] The two CONCACAF women's national teams that qualify for the Summer Olympics in 2024 (the United States and
Canada) received a bye directly to the W Gold Cup, skipping qualification.[2]
Tiebreakers
Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). The rankings of teams in each group were determined as follows (regulations Articles 12.3):[4]
points obtained in all group matches;
goal difference in all group matches;
number of goals scored in all group matches;
If two or more teams were equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings were determined as follows:
points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
goal difference in the group matches between the teams concerned;
number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
lowest fair play points in all group matches:
first yellow card: minus 1 point;
indirect red card (second yellow card): minus 3 points;
On April 27, 2023, CONCACAF announced 33 countries had entered into the qualifying competition (including Jamaica, the loser of the CONCACAF Olympic play-off).[5] The teams were split into leagues and pots based on the CONCACAF Women's Ranking of March 2023,[6] with League A containing nine teams and Leagues B and C containing twelve teams. On May 11, the CONCACAF Council approved the late entries of Bonaire, Cuba and Saint Lucia into the competition. To preserve the integrity of the leagues, these teams were placed in League C regardless of their ranking, though the pots were updated based on the ranking of the new teams. At the same time, the British Virgin Islands and Sint Maarten (originally in League C, pot 3) were confirmed to have withdrawn from the competition, bringing the total number of qualifying entrants to 34, and the number of teams in League C to thirteen. To accommodate the newly added teams, League C was expanded from three groups of four teams to one group of four teams (Group A) and three groups of three teams (Groups B, C and D).[7]
The draw for the group stage took place on May 17, 2023, 19:00 EDT, in Miami, Florida, United States.[5] Teams were split into three pots of three teams in League A, four pots of three teams in League B, and three pots of four teams and one pot of one team in League C. The pots were drawn from sequentially, with drawn teams assigned to groups in ascending order.
^Saint Vincent and the Grenadines were unable to travel to Bermuda prior to their scheduled match on December 1. The matter was resolved by CONCACAF by awarding Bermuda with a 3–0 win.[11]
The three group runners-up of League A and the three group winners of League B advanced to the play-offs (also known as the prelims). The six teams were divided into three pairings based on the December 2023 CONCACAF Women's Ranking. The single-leg matches took place at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, United States on February 17, 2024, immediately prior to the 2024 CONCACAF W Gold Cup. The three winners qualified for the final tournament's group stage.[3]
^ abcdWhile the semi-finalists of the 2022 Copa América Femenina were confirmed on July 18 (Brazil), July 20 (Colombia and Paraguay) and July 21, 2022 (Argentina), their invitation to participate in the W Gold Cup was not confirmed until January 27, 2023.
Goalscorers
There were 353 goals scored in 86 matches, for an average of 4.1 goals per match.
