T&T vs Martinique on Sept 6 opener

The Den­nis Lawrence-coached So­ca War­riors ranked 93rd as of April 4, will then host the French-speak­ing Caribbean Is­land on Mon­day, Sep­tem­ber 9 in the re­turn en­counter be­fore host­ing 61st world ranked Hon­duras on Thurs­day, Oc­to­ber 10, then play­ing the Cen­tral Amer­i­cans away on Sun­day, No­vem­ber 17 to com­plete round-robin pool play.

The six teams which par­tic­i­pat­ed in the fifth round (hexag­o­nal) of the 2018 FI­FA World Cup qual­i­fi­ca­tion re­ceived au­to­mat­ic en­try in­to the CON­CA­CAF Na­tions League A and were joined by the top six fin­ish­ers in 2019-20 Con­ca­caf Na­tions League qual­i­fiers last week­end to form League A.

In ad­di­tion to T&T, the World Cup quar­tet of Hon­duras, Pana­ma, Cos­ta Ri­ca and Mex­i­co, as well as the USA, were the oth­er au­to­mat­ic Na­tions League A qual­i­fiers.

When the draw was made for the group stage in March, Lawrence speak­ing then stat­ed: It’s a very good draw and even play­ing field for all as in the mod­ern game there are no strong or weak teams. It makes for an ex­cit­ing and hope­ful­ly en­ter­tain­ing Na­tions League for all.”

The draw ­self in­clud­ed teams sep­a­rat­ed in­to three pots of four teams each, based on the No­vem­ber 2018 Con­ca­caf Rank­ing, with one coun­try from each pot pulled to make up Na­tions League A Groups A, B, C and D.

The Group Phase for each league is a round-robin, home-and-away for­mat which will play out dur­ing the course of the Sep­tem­ber, Oc­to­ber and No­vem­ber FI­FA in­ter­na­tion­al dates in 2019.

At the end of the round-robin com­pe­ti­tion, the four group win­ners from League A will ad­vance to the Fi­nal Cham­pi­on­ship, where a se­mi­fi­nal and fi­nal will be played dur­ing the March 2020 FI­FA in­ter­na­tion­al dates to crown the 2019-20 Con­ca­caf Na­tions League cham­pi­on.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the League A and B teams which fin­ished last in their groups will be rel­e­gat­ed to the low­er league, while the group win­ners in Leagues B and C will be pro­mot­ed to the high­er league for the next edi­tion of the com­pe­ti­tion.

The four League A group win­ners will qual­i­fy to the Na­tions League fi­nal cham­pi­on­ship, to be played in March 2020, which will de­ter­mine the cham­pi­on of the new com­pe­ti­tion.

The four last-placed teams in each group will be rel­e­gat­ed to League B for the next edi­tion of the tour­na­ment.

League B will con­sist of the next 16 teams from qual­i­fy­ing, which fin­ished from 7th to 22nd.

The league will con­tain four groups of four teams. The four group win­ners will be pro­mot­ed to League A, while the four last-placed teams in each group will be rel­e­gat­ed to League C for the next edi­tion.

League C will con­sist of the re­main­ing 13 mem­ber as­so­ci­a­tions, the teams which fin­ished 23rd to 34th in qual­i­fy­ing, along with Guatemala who did not en­ter qual­i­fy­ing.

The league will con­tain four groups, with three groups of three teams and one group of four teams. The four group win­ners will be pro­mot­ed to League B for the next edi­tion of the com­pe­ti­tion.

2019 Con­ca­caf Na­tions League:

League A:

Group A: USA, Cana­da, Cu­ba

Group B: Mex­i­co, Pana­ma, Bermu­da

Group C: Hon­duras, T&T, Mar­tinique

Group D: Cos­ta Ri­ca, Haiti, Cu­ra­cao

League B:

Group A: French Guiana, St Kitts/Nevis, Be­lize, Grena­da

Group B: El Sal­vador, Do­mi­ni­can Re­pub­lic, St Lu­cia, Montser­rat

Group C: Ja­maica, Guyana, An­tigua & Bar­bu­da, Aru­ba

Group D: Nicaragua, Suri­name, St Vin­cent & The Grenadines, Do­mi­ni­ca

League C:

Group A: Bar­ba­dos, Cay­man Is­lands, Saint Mar­tin, US Vir­gin Is­lands

Group C: Bonaire, Ba­hamas, British Vir­gin Is­lands

Group C: Guatemala, Puer­to Ri­co, An­guil­la

Group D: Guade­loupe, Turks & Caicos Is­lands, Sint Maarten

Concacaf Nations League Infographic

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