2026 CONCACAF U-20 Championship

The 2026 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship will be the ninth edition of the CONCACAF Under-20 Championship, the biennial men's international under-20 association football tournament organized by CONCACAF. The tournament will be held from 25 July through 9 August, though CONCACAF has not announced the host as of April 2026.

As with the 2024 edition, 12 teams will compete in three groups of four teams each followed by an eight-team knockout round. The tournament results will determine CONCACAF's representatives at the 2027 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, 2027 Pan American Games in Lima, and 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Qualification

CONCACAF announced the qualification format in November 2025. As the six highest-ranked Under-20 teams in CONCACAF, the United States, Mexico, Honduras, Panama, Cuba, and Guatemala received byes to the final tournament. Thirty-two teams were drawn into six groups to play single round-robin matches with the six group winners qualifying.

Format

CONCACAF announced the tournament format in November 2026 (Sections 12.5–12.10):

• Group stage: Twelve teams will be drawn into three groups of four teams to play single round-robin matches. Group winners, runners-up, and the two highest-ranked third-place teams will advance to the knockout stage.
• Knockout stage: The eight teams advancing from the group stage will be seeded with group winners ranked 1–3, runners-up 4–6, and third-place teams 7 and 8. 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 will face off in quarter-finals 1–4, respectively. The winners of quarter-finals 1 and 4, and the winners of quarter-finals 2 and 3 will meet in the semifinals, with the winners of those matches contesting the final.

The tournament will determine the CONCACAF participants in the following tournaments (Sections 5.2–5.3):

• The four highest-placed teams affiliated with FIFA will qualify for the 2027 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
• The tournament champion and the highest-placed teams from the Caribbean, Central American, and North American regions will qualify for the 2027 Pan American Games.
• The highest-placed team affiliated with the IOC will qualify for the 2028 Olympics. If that team is the United States, which has qualified as the host nation, then the second-highest placed team will qualify.

Group stage

Tiebreakers

Teams will be ranked on the following criteria (Section 12.7):

If two or more teams are tied, the following criteria will be applied:

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Overall ranking of teams

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Knockout stage

The eight teams advancing from the group stage will play a single-elimination tournament.

Bracket

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Quarter-finals

Winners qualify for the 2027 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

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Semi-finals

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Final

The winner will qualify for the 2027 Pan American Games and the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Qualification for international tournaments

Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup

The following four teams will qualify for the 2027 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Qualified teams for Pan American Games

The following four teams will qualify for the 2027 Pan American Games.

Qualified teams for 2028 Summer Olympics

The following two teams will qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympics, including the United States, who qualified as hosts.

References

External links