User:Mpejkrm/2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)

The CONCACAF qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup consisted of four rounds of competition, in which the 35 member nations competed for three automatic berths at the finals in Russia.

Format
The qualification structure is as follows:
 * First round: A total of 14 teams (teams ranked 22–35) will play home-and-away over two legs. The seven winners will advance to the second round.
 * Second round: A total of 20 teams (teams ranked 9–21 and seven first round winners) will play home-and-away over two legs. The ten winners will advance to the third round.
 * Third round: A total of 12 teams (teams ranked 7–8 and ten second round winners) will play home-and-away over two legs. The six winners will advance to the fourth round.
 * Fourth round: A total of 12 teams (teams ranked 1–6 and six third round winners) will be divided into three groups of four teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The top two teams of each group will advance to the fifth round.
 * Fifth round: The six teams which advance from the fourth round will play home-and-away round-robin matches in one single group (often referred to as the "Hexagonal"). The top three teams will qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and the fourth-placed team will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Entrants
All 35 FIFA-affiliated national teams from CONCACAF entered qualification. The seeding – used to draw the first three rounds of the qualifiers – were based on the FIFA World Rankings of January 2015. (World rankings shown in parentheses)

First round
The first round of the CONCACAF qualifiers saw the bottom 10 teams being paired up into five home-and-away series. The winners of these series proceeded to the second round.

The matchups were announced by FIFA on 27 April 2015. The 5 winners (in bold, below) advanced to the second round of the CONCACAF qualifiers.


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