The 2026–27 CONCACAF Nations League C is the third and lowest division of the 2026–27 edition of the CONCACAF Nations League, the fifth season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 41 member associations of CONCACAF. The initial group stage will be held from 23 September to 6 October 2026.
League C will culminate with the League Championship in March 2027 to crown the champions of League C.
Format Starting this season, CONCACAF introduced a final round following the group stage for Leagues B and C in order to determine a winner for each league, similar to the format used in League A. The group stage maintains the same format, with the 9 teams divided into three groups of three, and each group playing on a double round-robin basis. Group stage matches will continue to be played at centralized venues, as decided in the previous season, in the official FIFA match windows of September–October 2026. The first-placed team of each group and the best second-placed team among all groups will be promoted to the 2028–29 CONCACAF Nations League B and will advance to the Nations League C Finals. They also will advance to the play-in round, in which they joined four teams from League A in order to compete to qualify for the 2027 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification tournament.
The Nations League C Finals will consists of a semi-final round, third place play-off and the final match, and will be played in March 2027 at a centralized venue to be determined by CONCACAF.
2027 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification As announced by CONCACAF in February 2026, the 2026–27 CONCACAF Nations League will serve as a qualifier for the 2027 CONCACAF Gold Cup. League C teams cannot qualify directly for the 2027 CONCACAF Gold Cup, but they can do so through the Gold Cup qualification tournament (also called CONCACAF Gold Cup prelims) as long as they advance past the Play-in round.
Teams A total of nine national teams contest League C, including the five sides that failed to be promoted last season and four teams relegated from the 2024–25 League B.
Team changes The following are the team changes in League C regarding the 2024–25 season:
+ Incoming Relegated fromNations League B + Outgoing Promoted toNations League B
Seeding The pots were confirmed on 21 July 2026, with the nine League C teams being split into three pots of three teams, based on the CONCACAF Rankings as of 20 July 2026.
+ Pot 1 Team 28 720 31 584 33 553+ Pot 2 Team 35 542 37 387 38 272+ Pot 3 Team 39 160 40 149 41 116
Draw
The draw for the groups composition was held on 23 July 2026, 19:00 EDT (UTC−4), in Miami, Florida, United States, where the nine involved teams were drawn into three groups of three. The draw began by randomly selecting a team from Pot 1 and placing them in Group A and then selecting the remaining teams from Pot 1 and placing them into groups B and C in sequential order. The draw continued with the same procedure done for the remaining pots.
The draw resulted in the following groups:
+ Group ATeamA1A2A3+ Group BTeamB1B2B3+ Group CTeamC1C2C3
Group stage The hosts for group stage matches were chosen based on the CONCACAF Rankings (as of 20 July 2026) used to seed the teams prior to the draw.
The highest-ranked national association will host all matches in its respective group, which are scheduled during the September–October 2026 FIFA match window. If a national association was unable to host matches, the second highest-ranked national association would be the host and then the third-ranked national association, if necessary. In all cases, an alternative neutral venue could be selected, subject to CONCACAF approval. The match schedule was predetermined to provide proper rest time in between matches.
+ September–October FIFA WindowMon 21Tue 22Wed 23Thu 24Fri 25Sat 26Sun 27Mon 28Tue 29Wed 30Thu 1Fri 2Sat 3Sun 4Mon 5Tue 6colspan=2 2 v 1colspan=2 1 v 3colspan=2 3 v 23 v 1colspan=2 2 v 31 v 2
The fixture list was confirmed by CONCACAF on 24 July 2026. All match times are in EDT (UTC−4) as listed by CONCACAF (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Ranking of second-placed teams
Finals
Goalscorers
References
External links