CONCACAF Releases Format for 2020 Championship

With three months left until the 2020 CONCACAF Futsal Championship, the governing body of the sport in the North American, Caribbean, and Central American region has finally release the format and dates for the tournament.

The 10-day competition wil take place from May 1-10th in Guatemala City, Guatemala at two venues – the Domo Polideportivo and Teodoro Palacios Flores Gymnasium.

20 teams will take part in the event which will see four spots available for the 2020 FIFA Futsal World Cup.

May 1-2 will see the first qualifying phase take place between the eight lowest seeded nations in CONCACAF. Each matchup will feature two legs with the winner advancing to the group stage.

Matchup 1: Sint Maarten vs Martinique

Matchup 2: Suriname vs French Guiana

Matchup 3: Saint Kitts and Nevis vs Dominican Republic

Matchup 4: Nicaragua vs Puerto Rico

The remaining 12 teams have automatically qualified for the group stage based off CONCACAF’s first ever futsal rankings, which was released on the same day as the tournament format was announced. The draw for the group stage will be conducted using a single-blind system, involving 3 pots.

Here are the pots with nations ranked in order:

Pot 1: Guatemala (host), Panama, Costa Rica and Cuba

Pot 2: Mexico, USA, Trinidad and Tobago and Canada

Pot 3: Curacao, El Salvador, Guadeloupe and Haiti

The draw will begin with the teams from Pot 1. Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica and Cuba will be placed in their pre-seeded positions A1, B1, C1 and D1, respectively. Once these have been confirmed, the teams from Pot 2 will be drawn. The first team selected will be placed in Group A, position 2, followed by the second team in position B2, the third team in C2 and the fourth team in D2. The same procedure will be followed for Pot 3, distributing the teams in position 3 of each group.

The qualifying stage matchup winners’ number 1, 2, 3 and 4, will be placed in position 4 of groups A, B, C and D, respectively.

Group stage matches will take place from May 4-6th. May 7th is a rest day with quarter-finals taking place on May 8th, semi-finals on May 9th, and the championship and third-place matches taking place on May 10th.