2026 CONCACAF W Championship
North American association football competition
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The 2026 CONCACAF W Championship will be the 12th edition of the CONCACAF W Championship, the quadrennial international women's football championship contested by the senior women's national teams of the member associations of CONCACAF, the regional governing body of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Eight teams will play in the tournament, and will be held in the United States from 27 November to 5 December 2026.[1]
 | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | United States |
| Dates | 27 November – 5 December 2026 |
| Teams | 8 |
| Venue | 2 (in 2 host cities) |
← 2022 2030 → | |
The tournament will serve as the CONCACAF qualifiers to the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup in Brazil. The top four teams will qualify for the World Cup, while two additional teams will advance to a play-off tournament.[2] Originally, the two finalists will qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles; should the United States be one of the finalists, then the winner of the third-place match will qualify.[1] After the FIFA Council's official announcement on the number of spots distributed for confederations on 17 December 2025, the winner of the third-place match will now also qualify; should the United States reach the semi-finals, the other semi-finalists will be guaranteed qualification even before the phase to be commenced.
The United States are the three-time defending champions of the competition, having won the 2014, 2018 and 2022 tournaments.
Format
Eight teams will play in the tournament, which will be held in November 2026. They will play a single-elimination tournament consisting of quarter-finals, play-ins (between the losers of the quarter-finals), semi-finals, a third place match and a final. The competition will qualify four CONCACAF teams for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup in Brazil, while two teams will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs. In addition, three teams will qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.[1][2]
Qualification
The two highest-ranked teams from CONCACAF in the FIFA Women's World Ranking of 7 August 2025 received a bye to the final tournament. Twenty-nine teams were drawn into five groups of five teams each and one group of four teams to play single round-robin matches during the international windows of November–December 2025, and February–March and April 2026.[3] The six group winners advanced to the final tournament.[1]
| Team | Method of qualification |
Date of qualification |
Finals appearance |
Last appearance |
FIFA ranking at start of event |
Previous best performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 United States |
CONCACAF highest-ranked in FIFA ranking[4] | 7 August 2025[a] | 11th | 2022 | Champions (1991, 1993, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2014, 2018, 2022) | |
 Canada |
CONCACAF next highest-ranked in FIFA ranking[4] | 7 August 2025[a] | 11th | 2022 | Champions (1998, 2010) | |
 El Salvador |
Qualification Group F winner | 17 April 2026 | 1st | N/a | Debut | |
 Haiti |
Qualification Group D winner | 17 April 2026 | 7th | 2022 | Fourth place (1991) | |
 Panama |
Qualification Group E winner | 17 April 2026 | 5th | 2022 | Fourth place (2018) | |
 Costa Rica |
Qualification Group C winner | 18 April 2026 | 9th | 2022 | Runners-up (2014) | |
 Jamaica |
Qualification Group B winner | 18 April 2026 | 8th | 2022 | Third place (2018, 2022) | |
 Mexico |
Qualification Group A winner | 18 April 2026 | 11th | 2022 | Runners-up (1998, 2010) |
- CONCACAF confirmed the automatic qualifiers on 7 August 2025, based on the CONCACAF women's ranking published on 11 March 2024. On 14 August 2025, CONCACAF re-allocated the seedings based on the FIFA Women's World Ranking of August 2025.[3]
Venues
The venues were announced by CONCACAF on April 21, 2026. Texas Health Mansfield Stadium in Mansfield, and Shell Energy Stadium in Houston, both in the state of Texas, will host the competition, with the former hosting the quarter-finals, the play-in matches for the inter-confederation playoffs, and the semi-finals, while the latter will host the third-place match and the final of the tournament.[5]
| Mansfield, Texas | Houston, Texas |
|---|---|
| Texas Health Mansfield Stadium | Shell Energy Stadium |
| Capacity: 7,000 | Capacity: 22,039 |
 |
 |
Knockout stage
The four quarter-final winners will qualify directly for the 2027 Women's World Cup, while the four quarter-final losers will compete in play-in matches to determine the two CONCACAF representatives in the inter-confederation play-offs. In addition, the top three teams, and, if United States is one of them, the fourth-place team, will qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Seeding
All teams were seeded according to the FIFA Women's World Ranking released 21 April 2026. The quarter-finals will feature 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 facing off.[1][5]
| Qualified teams[a] |
|---|
|
- The number in parentheses indicates the FIFA ranking of 21 April 2026
Bracket
| Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||
| 27 November 2026 – Mansfield | ||||||||||
| United States | ||||||||||
| 1 December 2026 – Mansfield | ||||||||||
| El Salvador | ||||||||||
| 27 November 2026 – Mansfield | ||||||||||
| Jamaica | ||||||||||
| 5 December 2026 – Houston | ||||||||||
| Costa Rica | ||||||||||
| 28 November 2026 – Mansfield | ||||||||||
| Canada | ||||||||||
| 1 December 2026 – Mansfield | ||||||||||
| Panama | ||||||||||
| 28 November 2026 – Mansfield | ||||||||||
| Third place | ||||||||||
| Mexico | ||||||||||
| 5 December 2026 – Houston | ||||||||||
| Haiti | ||||||||||
| 2 December 2026 – Mansfield | ||||||||||
| 2 December 2026 – Mansfield | ||||||||||
Quarter-finals
The winners will qualify for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup.
Play-in matches
The winners will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.
Semi-finals
The winners will qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympics. If the United States is one of the semi-finalists, then all semi-finalists will qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Third place
If the United States is not one of the semi-finalists, then only the winners will qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Final
Qualification for international tournaments
Qualified teams for FIFA Women's World Cup
The following four teams from CONCACAF will qualify for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup in Brazil. Two more teams may qualify via the inter-confederation play-offs.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in FIFA Women's World Cup[a] |
|---|---|---|
| TBD | 27 November 2026 | |
| TBD | 27 November 2026 | |
| TBD | 28 November 2026 | |
| TBD | 28 November 2026 |
- Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
Qualified teams for 2028 Summer Olympics
The following four teams from CONCACAF will qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympic women's football tournament in the United States, including United States, who qualified as hosts.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in Summer Olympics[a] |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 13 September 2017 | 8 (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024) |
| TBD | November/December 2026 | |
| TBD | November/December 2026 | |
| TBD | November/December 2026 |
- Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.