Some changes have been made to the opening rounds of CONCACAF qualifiers for the 2014 Men’s World Cup. Instead of an opening round involving all 35 member nations, there will now be a preliminary round in which the ten lowest ranked teams play off for five places in the first group phase. Here, six groups of four teams each are formed, and the group winners proceed. These teams, plus six other teams that received byes, enter the semifinal round. From then on, the qualifying campaign proceeds as normal. The top two teams in each of the three semifinal groups advance to the final round, a single group from which the top three qualify and the fourth placed team enters the playoffs.
¤ Teams to qualify: 3½
• Preliminary round entrants: Anguilla, Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Is, Dominican Rep, Montserrat, St Lucia, Turks-Caicos Is, US Virgin Is
» Bye to first group phase: Antigua-Barbuda, Barbados, Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Is, Curaçao, Dominica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, St Kitts-Nevis, St Vincent-Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago
» Bye to semifinal round: Costa Rica, Cuba, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, United States