Jamaica’s World Cup qualification path revealed

Jamaica's path to qualification for the 2026 World Cup was revealed yesterday. The traditional final hexagonal round has been replaced with a revamped system in keeping with the expansion of the tournament to 48 teams.

Concacaf outlined the changes for World Cup qualification yesterday as well as in detail the formats for other men's competition national cycles leading up to 2026, which include revamped changes for the 2023/24 Concacaf Nations League and Copa America 2024 qualification.

With FIFA confirming that Canada, the United States and Mexico have automatically qualified as co-hosts, the Concacaf qualifying process has been revamped to three rounds to determine the other three automatic qualifiers as well as two eligible for the intercontinental playoffs. The last qualifying cycle was reorganised because of the COVID-19 pandemic with the final round consisting of eight teams instead of six.

The first round will be played as a playoff between four of the lowest-ranked teams as of November 2023. This round will be played in March 2024. The winners will advance to the second round where they along with the other 28 nations will be drawn into six groups of five playing each team once (two home and two away). Those matches will be played during the June 2024 and 2025 windows with the group winners and runners-up heading into the final round which has been expanded to 12 teams.

The final 12 will be separated into three groups of four during the fall of 2025 with each team playing each other twice. The group winners will automatically qualify for the 2026 World Cup with the two best second-place teams qualifying for the intercontinental playoff.

Jamaica Football Federation president Michael Ricketts had indicated in the past the importance of qualification for this cycle given the increase in allotments for the tournament, declaring that it would be a "travesty" if they do not qualify.

National senior head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson previously expressed the urgency in investment in the young core saying that there is no time to waste.

"It is deceiving to say 2026 because the preparation to qualify for that one starts in less than a year. The investment and the preparation has to start now. So it is really deceiving to think about 2026 that we have plenty of time," Hallgrimsson said during the official launch of the new Jamaica Adidas kit last week Tuesday.