The qualifying phase of the 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League was a one-off tournament that took place from 6 September 2018 to 24 March 2019.[1] The qualifying determined the seeding for the group phase of the inaugural tournament, as well as determining the remaining ten teams that qualified for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup.[2]
Apart from the six teams which participated in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying hexagonal, the other 34 teams (Guatemala could not enter due to FIFA suspension after missing the deadline of 1 March 2018)[3] entered qualifying. The format for the qualifying stage was based on the Pots System, developed by Chilean Leandro Shara.[4] Under that format, the teams are divided into pots for scheduling purposes only, and all teams face rivals from each pot, and all teams are placed under one general standing (without groups). Subsequently, the 34 teams were divided into four pots, and each team played four matches, two home and two away. Based on their results in the general standing, the teams were divided into tiers for the group phase of the inaugural edition of the CONCACAF Nations League:[2][5]
The top six teams qualified for League A to join the six hexagonal participants.
The next sixteen teams qualified for League B.
The last twelve teams qualified for League C to join Guatemala.
Moreover, the top ten teams qualified for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup to join the six hexagonal participants.
The 34 teams were seeded into four pots based on their position in the March 2018 CONCACAF Ranking Index (shown in parentheses). Pots A and D contained 8 teams, while pots B and C contained 9 teams. Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.[1][7]
The order of the match pairings per each FIFA match window was as follows:[1]
Matchday
Dates
Pot pairings
Matches
Matchday 1
6–11 September 2018
Pot A v Pot D, Pot B v Pot C
B2 v C7, A6 v D5, D3 v A8, D8 v A1, C9 v B6, C1 v B8, B3 v C6, A3 v D4, A4 v D6, B9 v C2, D7 v A2, C5 v B4, D2 v A5, A7 v D1, B7 v C8, B1 v C3, C4 v B5
Matchday 2
11–16 October 2018
Pot A v Pot C, Pot B v Pot D, 1 team from Pot B v 1 team from Pot C
D6 v B7, A2 v C8, B6 v D1, B4 v D4, C6 v A7, B5 v D8, B8 v D5, C3 v B3, D7 v B1, A5 v C9, C7 v A6, C2 v A4, A8 v C1, D2 v B2, D3 v B9, A1 v C4, C5 v A3
Matchday 3
16–20 November 2018
Pot A v Pot B, Pot C v Pot D, 1 team from Pot B v 1 team from Pot C
C2 v D2, D6 v C4, A1 v B7, D5 v C5, B2 v A8, A4 v B4, B5 v A7, C3 v D8, C8 v D3, D1 v C1, B9 v A5, A3 v B8, C9 v D7, D4 v C6, A6 v B3, B6 v A2, B1 v C7
Matchday 4
21–24 March 2019
Pot A v Pot A, Pot B v Pot B, Pot C v Pot C, Pot D v Pot D, 1 team from Pot B v 1 team from Pot C
A8 v A1, B3 v B9, B4 v B6, A7 v A4, C8 v B5, D1 v D2, D4 v D7, B8 v B2, C6 v C9, C7 v C2, A5 v A6, C1 v C3, D5 v D6, B7 v B1, A2 v A3, C4 v C5, D8 v D3
The draw of the qualifying fixtures was held on 7 March 2018, 10:00 EST (UTC−5), at The Temple House in Miami Beach, Florida, United States, directly after the launch event of the CONCACAF Nations League. A computerized pre-draw produced a "master schedule", creating 17 fixtures for each matchday. The teams in each pot were then drawn to the corresponding positions in the schedule (A1–A8, B1–B9, C1–C9, D1–D8). The computer model assured that no teams face each other more than once, and that each team plays two home and two away matches.
The match dates were announced on 29 May 2018,[11][12][13] with the venues announced in August and September 2018.[14][15][16] The March 2019 match schedule was revised by CONCACAF in January 2019.[17]