The 2026 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship was the ninth edition of the CONCACAF Under-20 Championship, the biennial men's under-20 international association football tournament organized by CONCACAF. It was held in Mexico from 24 July to 9 August 2026.
As with the 2024 edition, 12 teams competed in three groups of four teams each followed by an eight-team knockout round. The tournament results determined CONCACAF's representatives at the 2027 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, 2027 Pan American Games in Lima, and the men's football tournament at the 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.
+ Qualified teams Received bye to final tournament Entered through qualifying
Venues
On 7 May 2026, CONCACAF released the match schedule and list of venues after the group draw.
Puebla Mexico City Estadio Universitario BUAP Estadio Cuauhtémoc Estadio Banorte Capacity: 19,283 Capacity: 51,726 Capacity: 87,523
Format
CONCACAF announced the tournament format in November 2025 (Sections 12.5–12.10):
Group stage: Twelve teams were drawn into three groups of four teams to play single round-robin matches. The winners and runners-up from each group and the two highest-ranked third-place teams advance to the knockout stage. Knockout stage: The eight teams advancing from the group stage are 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 semi-finals, with the winners of those matches contesting the final.
The tournament determines 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 each of 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.
Draw On 7 May 2026, CONCACAF held the group stage draw. The 12 qualified teams were divided into four pots of three teams each based on the CONCACAF ranking prior to qualification. Teams were drawn from Pot 1 into Groups A, B and C, in order, followed by teams from Pots 2, 3 and 4. + Draw pots Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4
Squads
Each team was required to register a squad of up to 21 players, three of whom had to be goalkeepers.
Group stage Group stage matches were held from 24 July to 1 August. All match times are UTC-6.
+ The ranking of teams in each group was determined by the points obtained in all group matches. If two or more teams were equal on points, the following criteria were used to determine the ranking:
If, after having applied criteria a to b, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria a to b were reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams who were still level to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria c to g applied.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Overall ranking of teams
Knockout stage The knockout stage will use a single-elimination format, starting with the quarter-finals on 4 August and culminating with the final on 9 August. If the score is even after regulation time in a match, 30 minutes of extra time were added. If still tied after this, a penalty shootout determined the winner.
All match times are UTC-6
Bracket
Quarter-finals The winners qualified for the 2027 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Semi-finals
The winner qualified for the 2027 Pan American Games and the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Final
Statistics Goalscorers
Qualification for international tournaments
Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup The following four teams qualified for the 2027 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
Team Qualified onPrevious appearances in 9 (1989, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2017) 18 (1981, 1983, 1987, 1989, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2023, 2025) 8 (1979, 1985, 1987, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007) 17 (1977, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1991, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2025)
Qualified teams for Pan American Games The champion team and the top team from each of the three CONCACAF zones, i.e., Caribbean (CFU), Central America (UNCAF), and North America (NAFU), qualified for the 2027 Pan American Games men's football tournament.
The following four teams from CONCACAF qualified for the 2027 Pan American Games men's football tournament in Peru.
Team Zone Qualified onPrevious appearances in CFU 4 (1959, 1971, 1991, 2007) UNCAF 8 (1951, 1959, 1975, 1979, 1995, 1999, 2007, 2011) NAFU 13 (1959, 1963, 1967, 1971, 1975, 1979, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1995, 1999, 2007, 2023) NAFU 16 (1955, 1959, 1967, 1971, 1975, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019, 2023)
Qualified teams for 2028 Summer Olympics The following two teams qualified for the 2028 Summer Olympics (the United States qualified as hosts):
Team Qualified on Summer Olympics 15 (1904, 1924, 1928, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1972, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2024) 12 (1928, 1948, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2012, 2016, 2020)
Notes
References