| Year: | 2022 |
| Tourney Name: | FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF) |
| Num Teams: | 34 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Matches: | 118 |
| Goals: | 345 |
| Top Scorer: | Cyle Larin (13 goals) |
| Prevseason: | 2018 |
| Nextseason: | 2026 |
The North, Central American and Caribbean section of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification[1] acted as the qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Qatar, for national teams which are members of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF). Three direct slots and one inter-confederation play-off slot in the final tournament were available for CONCACAF teams.[2]
On 10 July 2019, CONCACAF announced a restructured qualifying format for the World Cup.[3] After CONCACAF initially announced in March 2018 that they would use the CONCACAF Ranking Index to determine the seeding of CONCACAF teams for qualifying to international tournaments,[4] it was determined that FIFA Rankings would be used instead.
| Stage | Matchday | FIFA international dates[5] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top-seeded round | |||
| Hexagonal | Matchday 1 | 31 August – 8 September 2020 | |
| Matchday 2 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 5–13 October 2020 | ||
| Matchday 4 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 9–17 November 2020 | ||
| Matchday 6 | |||
| Matchday 7 | 22–30 March 2021 | ||
| Matchday 8 | |||
| Matchday 9 | 30 August – 7 September 2021 | ||
| Matchday 10 | |||
| Lower-seeded round | |||
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 31 August – 8 September 2020 | |
| Matchday 2 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 5–13 October 2020 | ||
| Matchday 4 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 9–17 November 2020 | ||
| Matchday 6 | |||
| Knockout stage | Quarter-finals | First leg | 22–30 March 2021 |
| Second leg | |||
| Semi-finals | First leg | 31 May – 8 June 2021 | |
| Second leg | |||
| Final | First leg | 30 August – 7 September 2021 | |
| Second leg | |||
| Play-off round | |||
| Play-off | First leg | 4–12 October 2021 | |
| Second leg | |||
However, on 25 June 2020, following FIFA's decision to postpone the September 2020 international window because of the COVID-19 pandemic, CONCACAF noted that "the challenges presented by postponements to the football calendar, and the incomplete FIFA rankings cycle in our confederation, means our current World Cup qualifying process has been compromised and will be changed."[6]
On 27 July 2020, CONCACAF announced a new qualifying format for the World Cup.[7]
All 35 FIFA-affiliated national teams from CONCACAF originally entered qualification. Teams were seeded based on their July 2020 FIFA rankings. However, Saint Lucia later withdrew, reducing the total number of teams to 34.
W Later withdrewOn 25 June 2020, FIFA announced that the inter-confederation play-offs, originally scheduled to be played in March 2022, were moved to June 2022, and that the June 2021 window would be extended from two matchdays to four for CONCACAF.[9] On 8 September 2020, CONCACAF announced that the matches scheduled for October and November 2020 would be rescheduled to 2021.[10] On 4 December 2020, FIFA announced that the September 2021, October 2021, January 2022 and March 2022 windows in the FIFA International Match Calendar would each be extended by one day to allow for three matchdays to be played per window.[11] [12] On the same day, CONCACAF announced the revised qualification schedule, which was updated on 16 June 2021.[13]
| Round | Matchday | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| First round | Window 1 | 24–30 March 2021 |
| Window 2 | 2–8 June 2021 | |
| Second round | First leg | 12 June 2021 |
| Second leg | 15 June 2021 | |
| Third round | Matchday 1 | 2 September 2021 |
| Matchday 2 | 5 September 2021 | |
| Matchday 3 | 8 September 2021 | |
| Matchday 4 | 7 October 2021 | |
| Matchday 5 | 10 October 2021 | |
| Matchday 6 | 13 October 2021 | |
| Matchday 7 | 12 November 2021 | |
| Matchday 8 | 16 November 2021 | |
| Matchday 9 | 27 January 2022 | |
| Matchday 10 | 30 January 2022 | |
| Matchday 11 | 2 February 2022 | |
| Matchday 12 | 24 March 2022 | |
| Matchday 13 | 27 March 2022 | |
| Matchday 14 | 30 March 2022 |
| Stage | Matchday | FIFA international dates |
|---|---|---|
| First round | Window 1 | 7, 8, 10, 11 & 13 October 2020 |
| Window 2 | 11, 13, 14 & 17 November 2020 | |
| Second round | First leg | 22–30 March 2021 |
| Second leg | ||
| Third round | Matchday 1 | 31 May – 15 June 2021 |
| Matchday 2 | ||
| Matchday 3 | ||
| Matchday 4 | ||
| Matchday 5 | 30 August – 7 September 2021 | |
| Matchday 6 | ||
| Matchday 7 | 4–12 October 2021 | |
| Matchday 8 | ||
| Matchday 9 | 8–16 November 2021 | |
| Matchday 10 | ||
| Matchday 11 | 24 January – 1 February 2022 | |
| Matchday 12 | ||
| Matchday 13 | 21–29 March 2022 | |
| Matchday 14 |
See main article: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF first round. The six highest ranked teams of the first round were pre-seeded into groups A through F. Teams in their groups played each other once, a total of four matches; two home and two away matches. The draw for the first round was held on 19 August 2020, 19:00 CEST (UTC+2), at the FIFA headquarters in Zürich.[14] [15] The top team from each group advanced to the second round. The COVID-19 pandemic caused many "home" games to be played at neutral venues.
See main article: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF second round.
The second round saw the six group winners from the first round playing in three home-and-away ties of predetermined pairings. The winners advanced to the third round.
See main article: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF third round.
As a result of CONCACAF's revision to their World Cup qualifying format, the traditional Hexagonal with six teams and ten games per team was expanded to eight teams and fourteen games per team for the final and decisive round. The top five CONCACAF teams in the July 2020 FIFA rankings entered in the third round, joining the three winners of the second round. The draw to determine the schedule for the third round was held on 19 August 2020, 19:00 CEST (UTC+2), at the FIFA headquarters in Zürich.[16] [17]
See main article: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF–OFC play-off). The inter-confederation play-off was determined by a draw held on 26 November 2021. The fourth-placed team from CONCACAF third round was drawn against the representative team from the OFC.[18] The play-off was played as a single match in Qatar on 14 June 2022.[19]
The following four teams from CONCACAF qualified for the final tournament.
| Team | Qualified as | Qualified on | data-sort-type="number" | Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (1986) | ||||
| 16 (1930, 1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1978, 1986, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018) | ||||
| 10 (1930, 1934, 1950, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014) | ||||
| 5 (1990, 2002, 2006, 2014, 2018) |
1 Italic indicates hosts for that year.
Links to the lists of goalscorers for each round are below:
