| Tourney Name: | CONCACAF Nations League A |
| Year: | 2024–25 |
| Dates: | Group phase: Quarter-finals: 11–19 November 2024 Nations League Finals: 20–23 March 2025 |
| Num Teams: | 16 |
| Prevseason: | 2023–24 |
| Nextseason: | 2026–27 |
The 2024–25 CONCACAF Nations League A is the top division of the 2024–25 edition of the CONCACAF Nations League, the fourth season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 41 member associations of CONCACAF. The initial group stage will be held from 2 September to 15 October 2024.[1] [2]
League A will culminate with the Nations League Finals in March 2025 to crown the champions of the CONCACAF Nations League.[3]
This edition of the CONCACAF Nations League A will serve to determine the four teams that qualify directly for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup in the United States. The top four teams will qualify for the final tournament while the remaining League A teams can still qualify via the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification tournament.[4]
League A maintains the same format introduced for the 2023–24 season, consisting of a group stage, a quarter-finals round, a play-in round and the finals.[5] The 16 involved teams entering the competition in the group stage or directly into the quarter-finals according to their position in the CONCACAF Rankings (as of 31 March 2024), with the 12 lowest-ranked teams entering the group stage and the top 4 ranked teams receiving a direct pass to the quarter-final round.[3]
The group stage consists of two groups of six teams with each team playing four matches against opponents of its group (two at home and two away) on a Swiss-system basis. The top two teams from each group will advance to the quarter-finals where they will join the 4 teams that qualified directly to this round. The bottom two teams from each group will be relegated to the 2026–27 CONCACAF Nations League B, but will also advance to the play-in round in which they will join 4 teams from the League C in order to compete to qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification tournament.[3]
The quarter-finals will be played on a two-legged home-and-away basis with the four winners advancing to the Nations League Finals and qualifying directly to the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The Nations League Finals, consisting of a semi-final round, third place play-off and the final match, will be played in March 2025 at a centralised venue to be announced.[3]
As announced by CONCACAF in February 2023, the 2024–25 CONCACAF Nations League will serve as a qualifier for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup.[5] League A teams will qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup final tournament or the Gold Cup qualification tournament (also called CONCACAF Gold Cup prelims) or advance to the play-in round based on their performance in the group stage and quarter-finals round, as follows:[4]
A total of sixteen national teams contest the League A, including the top twelve sides from the 2023–24 season and four promoted from the 2023–24 League B.
The following were the team changes in League A regarding the 2023–24 season:
French Guiana, Guadeloupe and Guyana reached the top flight of the CONCACAF Nations League for the first time, with French Guaiana and Guyana spending the first three seasons in League B while Guadeloupe started in League C in the inaugural edition before spending two seasons in League B. Nicaragua had already been promoted to the League A in the previous season but were disqualified for regulatory reasons before the start of the season, so this will be their first appearance in CONCACAF Nations League A.[6]
The pots were confirmed on 19 April 2024, with the lowest twelve League A ranked teams, based on the CONCACAF Rankings as of 31 March 2024, being split into six pots of two teams. The top four ranked teams (Mexico, the United States, Panama and Canada) were directly seeded in the quarter-finals.[3]
| Pot | Team | Rank[7] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 1,677 | |
| 6 | 1,621 | ||
| 2 | 7 | 1,431 | |
| 9 | 1,395 | ||
| 3 | 10 | 1,344 | |
| 11 | 1,322 | ||
| 4 | 13 | 1,158 | |
| 15 | 1,119 | ||
| 5 | 16 | 1,112 | |
| 17 | 1,070 | ||
| 6 | 18 | 1,058 | |
| 19 | 1,054 |
The group stage draw was held on 6 May 2024, 19:00 EDT (UTC−4), in Miami, Florida, United States, where the twelve involved teams were drawn into two groups of six. The draw began by randomly selecting a team from Pot 1 and placing them into Group A and then selecting the remaining team from Pot 1 and placing them into Group B. The draw continued with the same procedure done for the remaining pots.
The draw resulted in the following groups:[8]
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The fixture list was confirmed by CONCACAF on 23 May 2024.[1] [2] All match times are in EDT (UTC−4) as listed by CONCACAF (local times, if different, are in parentheses).[9]
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The quarter-finals pairings will be determined based on the CONCACAF Rankings published after the October 2024 FIFA Match Window for the four pre-seeded teams and the group stage results for the winners and runners-up of each group.[4] The four pre-seeded teams that received a direct bye to the quarter-finals (Canada, Mexico, Panama and the United States) will have the chance to decide the order of legs.
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The match-ups will be as follows:
Each tie is played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score is level at the end of the second leg the away goals rule would be applied. If away goals were also equal, then 30 minutes of extra time would be played without taking into account the away goals rule during this time. If still tied after extra time, the tie would be decided by a penalty shoot-out.
Winners will advance to the Nations League Finals and qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup, while losers will qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification.
The first legs will be played on 14–15 November, and the second legs will be played on 18 November 2024.
Winner advances to the Finals and qualifies for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Loser qualifies for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification----Winner advances to the Finals and qualifies for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Loser qualifies for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification----Winner advances to the Finals and qualifies for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Loser qualifies for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification----Winner advances to the Finals and qualifies for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Loser qualifies for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification
The play-in round will be contested by the two bottom teams from each group of League A (teams ranked 5th and 6th) and the top four teams from League C (three group winners and the best team among the group runners-up). Pairings will be determined based on the teams' results during the group stage.[4]
The match-ups will be as follows:
Each tie is played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, with the order of legs to be determined in due course. If the aggregate score is level at the end of the second leg, the same tie-breaker criteria used in the quarter-finals would be applied.
Winners will qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification.
The first legs will be played on 11–19 November, and the second legs will be played on 11–19 November 2024.|}
Winner qualifies for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification.----Winner qualifies for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification.----Winner qualifies for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification.----Winner qualifies for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification.