CONCACAF

The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF;  /ˈkɒn.kəkæf/ kon-kə-kaf) is the continental governing body for association football in North America, Central America and the Caribbean. Three South American entities, the independent nations of Guyana and Suriname and the French department of French Guiana, are also members.^[1]

CONCACAF was founded in its current form on 18 September 1961 in Mexico City, Mexico by the fusion of the NAFC and the CCCF, and it became one of the six continental confederations affiliated with FIFA. Its primary administrative functions are to organize competitions for national teams and clubs, and to conduct World Cup qualifying tournaments. In recent years, men's football in the region has been dominated by the United States and Mexico, who have won all but one of the editions of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The United States has been very successful in the women's game, being the only CONCACAF member to win any of the three major worldwide competitions in women's football—the World Cup (twice), the Olympics (three times), and the Algarve Cup (eight times).

Leadership

Since 1990 Jack Warner has been the President of CONCACAF. Warner was suspended as president on 30 May 2011 due to his temporary suspension from football related activity by FIFA following corruption allegations.^[2] A power struggle developed at CONCACAF following the allegations against Warner. The allegations against Warner were reported to the FIFA ethics committee by Chuck Blazer, the secretary general of CONCACAF. The acting president of CONCACAF, Lisle Austin, sent Blazer a letter saying he was "terminated as general secretary with immediate effect".^[3] Austin described Blazer's actions as "inexcusable and a gross misconduct of duty and judgement" and said the American was no longer fit to hold the post.^[4] The executive committee of CONCACAF later issued a statement saying that Austin did not have the authority to fire Blazer, and the decision was unauthorised.^[3] The vice-president of CONCACAF, Alfredo Hawit, is now the acting president.^[5] On 20 June 2011, Jack Warner resigned the presidency of CONCACAF, all posts with FIFA, and removed himself from all participation in football, in the wake of the corruption investigation resulting from the 10 May 2011 meeting of the Caribbean Football Union.^[6]

Member nations

Men's National teams

North American Zone (NAFU)

Central American Zone (UNCAF)

Caribbean Zone (CFU)

Women's National teams

North American Zone (NAFU)

Central American Zone (UNCAF)

Caribbean Zone (CFU)

1:Inside the North American zone, but CFU member.
2:South American country, but CONCACAF member.
3:Full CONCACAF member, but non-FIFA member.

Competitions

National teams

Confederation

• CONCACAF Gold Cup – Official CONCACAF tournament.
• CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup – Official women's tournament.
• CONCACAF Men's Pre-Olympic Tournament
• CONCACAF Women's Pre-Olympic Tournament
• CONCACAF U-20 Championship
• CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship
• CONCACAF U-17 Championship
• CONCACAF Women's U-17 Championship

Regional unions

• Central American Cup – Central America, top 5 qualify for the Gold Cup.
• Caribbean Cup – Caribbean, top 4 qualify for the Gold Cup.

Beach Soccer

• CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship

Defunct

• NAFC Championship (1947,1949).
• CCCF Championship (1941–1961).
• CONCACAF Championship (1963–1989).
• CFU Championship (1978–1985).
• North American Nations Cup (1990,1991).

Clubs

Confederation

• CONCACAF Champions League

Regional unions

• CFU Club Championship – Caribbean, top 3 qualify for the Champions League.

Defunct

• CONCACAF Champions' Cup
• CONCACAF Cup Winners Cup
• CONCACAF Giants Cup
• SuperLiga – North America regional championship
• Copa Interclubes UNCAF – Central America regional championship

CONMEBOL tournaments with CONCACAF competitors

National teams

• Copa America

Clubs

• Copa Libertadores
• Copa Sudamericana – (2005–2008).
• Copa Merconorte – (2000–2001). (Defunct)

World Cup Participation and Results

Legend

• 1st – Champion
• 2nd – Runner-up
•  3rd  – Third Place^[7]
• 4th – Fourth place
• QF – Quarterfinals
• R16 – Round of 16 (since 1986: knockout round of 16)
• GS – Group Stage (in the 1950, 1974, 1978 and 1982 tournaments, which had two group stages, this refers to the first group stage)
• 1S – First Knockout Stage (1934–1938 Single-elimination tournament)
•    — Hosts

World Cup Qualifiers

Only ten CONCACAF members have ever reached the FIFA World Cup since its inception in 1930, five of them accomplishing the feat only once. No team from the region has ever reached the final at the World Cup, but the United States has reached the semifinal in a FIFA World Cup in the first edition in 1930, where they were awarded third place, and they also reached the quarterfinal round in 2002. Mexico and Cuba have also reached the quarterfinal round. Cuba advanced to the quarterfinals in their only appearance, the 1938 FIFA World Cup. Mexico did so both times they hosted the World Cup, 1970 and 1986.

The following table shows the CONCACAF representatives at each edition of the World Cup, sorted by number of appearances:

Women's World Cup Qualifiers

The following table shows the CONCACAF representatives at each edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, sorted by number of appearances.

Confederations Cup Qualifiers

• Q – Qualified for the 2013 FIFA Confederation's Cup

Rankings

• Last updates:
  • Men's national teams: 19 October 2011
  • Women's national teams: 23 September 2011
  • Clubs: 31 October 2011

Titles by national team

North America

Mexico, the United States, and Canada have not participated in regional union tournaments since 1991

Canada

Men

Regional Honors

• CONCACAF Gold Cup

Winners (2): 1985, 2000

• North American Nations Cup

Winners (1): 1990

International Honors

• Summer Olympics^*

Gold Medal (1): 1904

Women

Regional Honors

• CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup

Winners (2): 1998, 2010

Mexico

Men

International Honors

• King Fahd Cup / FIFA Confederations Cup: 1

1999

Third Place (1): 1995

Regional Honors

• CONCACAF Gold Cup

Winners (9): 1965, 1971, 1977, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2009, 2011

• North American Nations Cup

Winners (1): 1991

Runners-Up (1): 1990

• Pan Am Games Gold Medals

Winners (3): 1967, 1975, 1999

U-20 Men

International Honors

• FIFA U-20 World Cup: Runner-ups

1977

Third Place (1): 2011

U-17 Men

International Honors

• FIFA U-17 World Cup: 2

2005, 2011

United States

Men

• Summer Olympics^*

Silver Medal (1): 1904

Bronze Medal (1): 1904

• FIFA World Cup

Third Place (1): 1930

• King Fahd Cup / FIFA Confederations Cup

Runners-Up (1): 2009

Third Place (2): 1992, 1999

• CONCACAF Gold Cup

Winners (4): 1991, 2002, 2005, 2007

• North American Nations Cup

Runners-Up (1): 1991

• Pan American Games

Gold Medal (1): 1991

Women

International Honors

• FIFA Women's World Cup: 2

1991, 1999

• Olympic Games: 3

1996, 2004, 2008

• Algarve Cup: 8

2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011

Regional Honors

• CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup

Winners (6): 1991, 1993, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2006

• Pan American Games

Gold Medal (1): 1999

U-20 Women

International Honors

• FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup: 2

2002, 2008

Central America

Costa Rica

Regional

• CONCACAF Gold Cup

Winners (3): 1963, 1969, 1989

• UNCAF Nations Cup

Winners (6): 1991 Champions, 1997 Champions, 1999 Champions, 2003 Champions, 2005 Champions, 2007 Champions

• World Cup qualification First place (2): 1990,2002:

• CCCF Championship

Winners (7): 1941, 1946, 1948, 1953, 1955, 1960, 1961

Honduras

• CONCACAF Gold Cup  :Winners (1): 1981

• UNCAF Nations Cup  :Winners (3): 1993 Champions, 1995 Champions, 2011 Champions,

Guatemala

Regional

• UNCAF Nations Cup

Winners (1): 2001 Champions

Panama

Regional

• UNCAF Nations Cup

Winners (1): 2009 Champions

Caribbean

Haiti

Regional

• CONCACAF Gold Cup

Winners (1): 1973 Champions

See also

Regional Unions

• NAFU
• UNCAF
• CFU

Former Confederations

• NAFC
• CCCF

Related articles

• IFFHS Central and North America's best clubs of the 20th century
• List of CONCACAF competitions

References

External links

• Official site
• CONCACAF Statutes
• Confederation of North Central American & Caribbean Association Football, Soccerlens.com. Retrieved: 09/10/2010.
• CONCACAF at the Open Directory Project