CONCACAF has unveiled details ahead of the first women’s soccer Gold Cup, which is scheduled for next year in the United States.
Qualifying will begin in September, following the draw on May 17, with nine teams qualifying for the 18-country main event.
The CONCACAF Women’s Soccer Gold Cup, to be held from February 17 to March 10, 2024, will feature a six-team preliminary round and a 12-team group stage. There will then be a three round elimination phase to determine the best women’s team from North America, Central America and the Caribbean.
CONCACAF made the announcement on Wednesday to mark International Women’s Day.
“This new CONCACAF Women’s Soccer Gold Cup will be the flagship event for our region’s national women’s soccer teams and will showcase some of the best players in CONCACAF and the world,” said Canadian Victor Montagliani, President of the CONCACAF and Vice-President of FIFA.
The 12-team group stage will feature eight teams from CONCACAF and four others invited from South American confederation CONMEBOL.
The top-ranked Americans in the world have already secured a place in the group stage by winning the CONCACAF Women’s Soccer Championship in 2022. They defeated Canada 1-0 in the final.
The Canadians, sixth in the world, can secure their ticket to the group stage by beating Jamaica (44e) in a home-and-away series during the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifiers, which will take place in September. The losing team of this duel will face a longer route to the Gold Cup.
Six other CONCACAF teams will advance to the group stage, through qualifying and the preliminary round. CONMEBOL guest teams — Brazil (9e), Colombia (27e), Argentina (29e) and Paraguay (50e) — were selected following the 2022 Women’s America’s Cup.
The qualifying road will begin in September for 33 countries, following the conclusion of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which will be held in Australia and New Zealand.
CONCACAF’s 33 teams, not including the region’s two representatives at the 2024 Paris Olympics (the United States and Canada or Jamaica), will be split into three leagues according to their March 2023 CONCACAF rankings.
League A will feature the nine highest ranked teams divided into three groups. League B will consist of the next 12 teams divided into three groups, while League C will consist of the 12 lowest-ranked teams divided into three groups.
After home and away matches to be held in the FIFA international windows of September, October and November, the three group winners from League A will qualify for the Gold Cup group stage.
The runners-up from the League A groups and the winners from the League B groups will participate in the preliminary round of the tournament.
Each of these six teams will participate in a single elimination match of the preliminary phase, scheduled for February 17, 2024. They will be divided into three pairs according to their CONCACAF ranking of December 2023. The winners will advance to the group stage.
The round-robin group stage, which will take place from February 20-28, 2024, will feature three groups of four teams. The three winners, the three runners-up and the two best third-place finishers will qualify for the elimination phase.