CHICAGO (March 23, 2018) – The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football announced today that the United States will host the 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship from October 4-17. Information on the venues and the tournament draw will be announced in the coming weeks.
The 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship will feature eight teams with the winners of the semifinals and the third-place match qualifying for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France. The fourth-place team will qualify for a two-game playoff against the third-place team from South America for a final berth to France.
The USA, Canada and Mexico have automatic berths into the tournament. The five remaining participants will qualify via the 2018 Concacaf Caribbean Women’s Qualifier and 2018 Concacaf Central America Women’s Qualifier.
The 2018 Concacaf Caribbean Women’s Qualifier is set to kick off on May 5 and will be disputed in two stages among 23 participating Member Associations. For the first round of the regional qualifying tournament, the Caribbean teams will be sorted into three groups of five teams and two groups of four. The participating teams are (in alphabetical order): Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos Islands and US Virgin Islands.
The final round of Caribbean qualifying, featuring the first-round group winners, will be contested from July 21-29. The top three finishers of the final round will qualify to the 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship.
In Central America, the qualifying tournament will be played in Nicaragua from July 6-10 and will feature the hosts, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and Panama. After round-robin play, the top two finishers will advance to the 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship.