New Concacaf 2022 Qualifying

Interesting.  Concacaf announced the new 2022 World Cup qualifying format.  So instead of qualifying to be in the Hex (top 6 teams), the top 6 teams will automatically be selected based on the FIFA ranking in June 2020.  So there's less stress there for USA and Mexico.  Also, there will be two groups qualifying simultaneously, with the Hex in one and the other 29 (divided into 8 subgroups) in another.  The first group (Hex) will see the top 3 teams qualify for the World Cup.  In the other group, each of the 8 subgroup winners will play in a knockout stage with the winner playing the 4th place team in the Hex.  Then the winner of this will play in the Inter-Confederation playoff, which would either be the 5th place AFC, the 5th place CONMEBOL, or the 1st place OFC team.

So if you are the 7th ranked Concacaf team, you have to win your subgroup (4-6 matches), then win three knockout matches, then win a two-leg playoff against the 4th place Concacaf team, and then win a two-leg playoff against another confederation.  Whew.  So who's currently #7 (June 14 - before Gold Cup so Curacao (#9) and Haiti (#11) could move up)?  Panama, who actually qualified for the 2018 World Cup (while the USA didn't).  Canada is #8.  Both would need to somehow leapfrog Honduras or El Salvador, who are #5 and #6.  So in 11 months, we'll see if these four teams mix up.


BTW, the qualification for 2022 has already begun when the AFC (Asia & Australia) started their first round (4 rounds total) and Mongolia beat Brunei 2-0 in the first leg on June 6 (Mongolia advanced to the 2nd round on aggregate 3-2 on June 11).  The AFC uses this qualification for both the World Cup and Asian Cup.  The CAF (Africa) has not settled on a format yet after rejecting a joint WC/AFCON qualification (for 2018, qualification was 3 rounds and will be decided this month).  CONMEBOL (South America) will be the same 10 team round-robin.  OFC (Oceania) has not settled on a format yet (for 2018, there were 3 rounds (2nd round was OFC Nations Cup) to see who would qualify for Inter-Confederation playoff).  UEFA (Europe) will decide in September and may base some of it on the 2nd Nations League competition.