CONCACAF Nations League

Introduced in 2018, the CONCACAF Nations League is an international competition contested by the national teams of the member associations of CONCACAF.

It was created to maximize the match dates within the FIFA international calendar and to provide a pathway for more meaningful football for all the member associations, so effectively replacing less challenging friendly games.

It is based on a league structure with all 41 member associations divided in three different leagues, based on their level, with a champion to be decided at the end of each edition.

To initially seed the nations into their respective leagues, the new competition began with a preliminary series of matches played across four rounds from September 2018 to March 2019.

The aim of the Nations League is to allow the associations to 'create, cultivate and capitalize on a truly comprehensive national team development program through regular competition'.

For many of the smaller nations, it is hoped that it will offer 'the opportunity among those that historically have lacked the tools and structure to develop at the national team level'.

CONCACAF (the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) is the FIFA continental governing body in North America, also including Central America and the Caribbean region. Three geographically South American territories (Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana) are also members.

It was founded in its current format in September 1961 with the merger of the North American Football Confederation (NAFC) and Confederación Centroamericana y del Caribe de Fútbol (CCCF).