2026 CONCACAF W Championship
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | TBD |
| Dates | November 2026 |
| Teams | 8 |
← 2022 2030 → | |
The 2026 CONCACAF W Championship will be the 12th edition of the CONCACAF W Championship, the quadrennial international women's football championship contested by the senior women's national teams of the member associations of CONCACAF, the regional governing body of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Eight teams will play in the tournament, which will take place in November 2026.[1]
The tournament will serve as the CONCACAF qualifiers to the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup in Brazil. The top four teams will qualify for the World Cup, while two additional teams will advance to a play-off tournament.[2] In addition, the two finalists will qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles; should the United States be one of the finalists, then the winner of the third-place match will qualify.[1]
The United States are the three-time defending champions of the competition, having won the 2014, 2018 and 2022 tournaments.
Format
[edit | edit source]Eight teams will play in the tournament, which will be held in November 2026. They will play a single-elimination tournament consisting of quarter-finals, play-ins (between the losers of the quarter-finals), semi-finals, a third place match and a final. The competition will qualify four CONCACAF teams for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup in Brazil, while two teams will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs. In addition, two teams will qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.[1][2]
Qualification
[edit | edit source]The two highest-ranked teams from CONCACAF in the FIFA Women's World Ranking of 7 August 2025 received a bye to the final tournament. Twenty-nine teams were drawn into five groups of five teams each and one group of four teams to play single round-robin matches during the international windows of November–December 2025, and February–March and April 2026.[3] The six group winners will advance to the final tournament.[1]
| Team | Method of qualification |
Date of qualification |
Finals appearance |
Last appearance |
FIFA ranking at start of event |
Previous best performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 United States
|
CONCACAF highest-ranked in FIFA ranking[4] | August 7, 2025[a] | 11th | 2022 | Champions (1991, 1993, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2014, 2018, 2022) | |
 Canada
|
CONCACAF next highest-ranked in FIFA ranking[4] | August 7, 2025[a] | 11th | 2022 | Champions (1998, 2010) | |
| TBD | Qualification Group A winner | 2026 | ||||
| TBD | Qualification Group B winner | 2026 | ||||
| TBD | Qualification Group C winner | 2026 | ||||
| TBD | Qualification Group D winner | 2026 | ||||
| TBD | Qualification Group E winner | 2026 | ||||
| TBD | Qualification Group F winner | 2026 |
- ^ a b CONCACAF confirmed the automatic qualifiers on 7 August 2025, based on the CONCACAF women's ranking published on 11 March 2024. On 14 August 2025, CONCACAF re-allocated the seedings based on the FIFA Women's World Ranking of August 2025.[3]
Knockout stage
[edit | edit source]The four quarter-final winners will qualify directly for the 2027 Women's World Cup, while the four quarter-final losers will compete in play-in matches to determine the two CONCACAF representatives in the inter-confederation play-offs. In addition the two finalists and, if United States is one of the finalists, the third-place team will qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Seeding
[edit | edit source]All teams will be seeded according to the FIFA ranking. The quarter-finals will feature the first- and eighth-seeded teams, the second- and seventh-seeded teams, the third- and sixth-seeded teams, and the fourth- and fifth-seeded teams facing off.[1]
| Qualified teams[a] |
|---|
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- ^ The number in parentheses indicates the FIFA ranking.
Bracket
[edit | edit source]| Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||
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| Third place | ||||||||||
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| November 2026 | ||||||||||
Quarter-finals
[edit | edit source]The winners will qualify for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup.
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Play-in matches
[edit | edit source]The winners will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.
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Semi-finals
[edit | edit source]The winners will qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
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Third place
[edit | edit source]If the United States is one of the finalists, the winners will qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
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Final
[edit | edit source]| v | ||
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Qualification for international tournaments
[edit | edit source]Qualified teams for FIFA Women's World Cup
[edit | edit source]The following four teams from CONCACAF will qualify for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup. Two more teams may qualify via the inter-confederation play-offs.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in FIFA Women's World Cup[a] |
|---|---|---|
| TBD | November 2026 | |
| TBD | November 2026 | |
| TBD | November 2026 | |
| TBD | November 2026 |
- ^ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
Qualified teams for 2028 Summer Olympics
[edit | edit source]The following three teams from CONCACAF will qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympic women's football tournament, including the United States, who qualified as hosts.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in Summer Olympics[a] |
|---|---|---|
| United States |
13 September 2017 | 8 (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024) |
| TBD | November 2026 | |
| TBD | November 2026 |
- ^ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ a b c d e Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).