Concacaf president Victor Montagliani said he's still committed to the idea of eight members of the federation to receive berths to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, including co-hosts U.S., Mexico and Canada, during a Monday interview on FOX Sports.
“We’re trying to prepare our region so that, when we come to 2026, we will have three host nations there, but that we will have five other nations that qualify to the World Cup. So you have eight Concacaf nations.” Montagliani told hosts Rob Stone and Alexi Lalas . “The only way you are going to do that is by having more competitions, more opportunities, more possibilities for our countries.”
Goodbye, Hexagonal. Hello, Octagonal. 👋@Concacaf President @VicMontagliani tells @RobStoneONFOX and @AlexiLalas what went into the decision to revise the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying format. pic.twitter.com/SDiuaKPGmm
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 28, 2020
At the moment, There has been no official change to the 2026 qualifying structure so, with reporting from American Soccer Now's Brian Sciaretta on Tuesday indicating that it remains a fluid situation. He also clarified that Concacaf may not receive eight direct qualifying berths; rather, two of the eight teams would have to participate in an intercontinental playoff.
Two things I'm hearing. 1) CONCACAF will not necessarily have 8 teams at the 2026 WC. It's likely the 3 host teams, 3 more directly via qualifying, plus 2 more via an intercontinental playoff. So it's 6-8 spots 2) U-23 Olympic qualifying likely in March 2021 back in Guadalajara
— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) July 28, 2020
