CONCACAF have announced a revised qualifying format for the 2022 Men’s World Cup. The 35 teams will play over three rounds, with a newly expanded final round involving eight teams. The first round will begin in OCT 2020.

The original format featured two tiers: one with the top six teams in the FIFA rankings, and one with the remaining 29 teams. Both tiers were to have started in SEP 2020, but those matches were scrubbed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new format begins with thirty teams in the first round, to be drawn into six groups. The five teams in each group play each other once, giving each team two home matches and two away matches. El Salvador, Canada, Curaçao, Panama, Haiti, and Trinidad-Tobago have been confirmed as the top seeds in this round. The six teams that finish first in the groups advance to the second round, where they play off against one another over two legs.

The second round winners join the five top ranked teams – Mexico, the United States, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Honduras – in the final round. The eight teams then play one another twice. The top three qualify for Qatar 2022, and the fourth placed team advances to the playoffs.

The first round will be played in OCT-NOV 2020, and the second round in MAR 2021. The final round will begin in JUN 2021 and continue through MAR 2022.