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 Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

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. League A will culminate with the Nations League Finals in March 2025 to crown the champions of the CONCACAF Nations League. This edition of the CONCACAF Nations League A will serve to determine the four teams that qualify directly for the

2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup will be the 18th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's soccer championship of the North, Central American and Caribbean region organized by CONCACAF. The tournament will be played from Ju ...

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.

Format

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. 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. 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. The quarter-finals will be played on a

two-legged In sports (particularly association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum o ...

home-and-away basis with the four winners advancing to the Nations League Finals and qualifying directly to the

. 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.

2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification

As announced by CONCACAF in February 2023, the 2024–25 CONCACAF Nations League will serve as a qualifier for the

. 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: *The four quarter-finals winners (i.e., the 4 teams involved in the finals) will qualify directly for the

. *The four quarter-finals losers will qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification. *The third and fourth placed teams of each group will also qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification. *The fifth and sixth placed teams of each group will advance to the play-in round where they will face the top 4 teams in the League C for the last 4 slots in the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification.

Teams

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.

Team changes

The following were the team changes in League A regarding the 2023–24 season:

Teams promoted from League B

French Guiana,

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...

and

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

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.

Seeding

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.

Draw

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:

Group stage

The fixture list was confirmed by CONCACAF on 23 May 2024. All match times are in EDT ( UTC−4) as listed by CONCACAF (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Group A

---- ---- ----

Group B

---- ---- ----

Quarter-finals

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. 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. The match-ups will be as follows: *Quarter-final 1 (QF1): Fourth-ranked pre-seeded team vs. Best ranked group winner *Quarter-final 2 (QF2): Third-ranked pre-seeded team vs. Worst ranked group winner *Quarter-final 3 (QF3): Second-ranked pre-seeded team vs. Best ranked group runner-up *Quarter-final 4 (QF4): First-ranked pre-seeded team vs. Worst ranked group runner-up Each tie is played on a home-and-away

basis. If the aggregate score is level at the end of the second leg the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...

would be applied. If away goals were also equal, then 30 minutes of

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

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

, while losers will qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification.

Summary

The first legs will be played on 14–15 November, and the second legs will be played on 18 November 2024.

Matches

''Winner advances to the Finals and qualifies for the

. Loser qualifies for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification'' ---- ''Winner advances to the Finals and qualifies for the

. Loser qualifies for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification''

Play-in

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. The match-ups will be as follows: *Play-in 1 (PI1): League A best 5th placed team vs League C best group runner-up *Play-in 2 (PI2): League A worst 5th placed team vs League C third-best group winner *Play-in 3 (PI3): League A best 6th placed team vs League C second-best group winner *Play-in 4 (PI4): League A worst 6th placed team vs League C best group winner

Each tie is played on a home-and-away

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.

Summary

The first legs will be played on 11–19 November, and the second legs will be played on 11–19 November 2024.

Matches

''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.''

Nations League Finals

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:2024-25 CONCACAF Nations League A

League A League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Leagues (band), ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full ...

Scheduled association football competitions