User:Quidster4040/sandbox/2016 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification

The 2016 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 15 CONCACAF member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Cuba in the 2016 CONCACAF Gold Cup final tournament.

Qualifying group stage
There were seven pots for the seven groups. The draw was held in July 2014 and teams were ranked based on their ELO World Rankings for that month. The ELO Rankings were installed, because the FIFA Rankings exclude CONCACAF members that are not full FIFA members.

Group A

 * Main article: 2016 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification Group A

Group B

 * Main article: 2016 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification Group B

Group C

 * Main article: 2016 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification Group C

Group D

 * Main article: 2016 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification Group D

Group E

 * Main article: 2016 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification Group E

Group F

 * Main article: 2016 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification Group F

Qualifying playoffs

 * Main article: 2016 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualifying play-offs

The play-offs of the 2016 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualifying tournament decided the final three teams which qualified for the 2016 CONCACAF Gold Cup final tournament. Six teams, each of which finished third in their qualifying group were paired and contested in three ties, with the winner of each pair qualifying for the final tournament. Each of the three ties were played over two home-and-away legs with the threed winners found according to the standard rules for the knockout phase in North American competitions.

Ranking of third-placed teams
Teams were seeded based on their ELO rankings in December 2015.

Summary
The schedule of the play-offs was published by CONCACAF within one hour of the draw. The eight matches were spread over the six days, with the first legs on 31 January 2016 and the second legs on 5 February 2016. The kickoff times were 18:00 or 20:00 EST (local times are in parentheses).


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