All 35 countries within CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) have entered the competition and will be vying for just 3 places in the finals in Korea/Japan.

Guyana were suspended by FIFA before the preliminary competition began and took no part in it.

This Confederations preliminary competition is the most complex of all the preliminary rounds being played.

The CONCACAF teams has been divided as follows:-

Four countries, Mexico, USA, Jamaica and Costa Rica have qualified for this confederations semi final round by virtue of having been in at least one of the past three World Cup final stages.

There are 6 teams in the Central American section and 25 teams in the Caribbean section including Canada, Bahamas and Bermuda from North America.

The Central American teams will be split into two groups of three teams who will play each other home and away, with the winners of each group qualifying for the semi final round.

The 25 teams in the Caribbean section are, with the exception of Canada who were World Cup qualifiers in 1986, split into three pools of eight who play a knock out competition as shown below. The winners of the knock out competition then proceed to the semi final section.

The losers of Pool 1 of this knock out competition play Canada, the losers of Pool 2 play the runners up in Group A of the Central American group and, the losers of Pool 3 play the runners up in Group B of the Central American group. The winners of these matches also progress to the semi final round.

This now leaves us with twelve teams made up of the four teams who gained exemption, the two Central American group winners, the three Caribbean Pool winners and the three winners of the play off matches (Interzone teams).

These twelve countries are then divided into three groups of four. Three countries Mexico, Jamaica and the USA are seeded into separate groups with the remaining countries being placed into separate pots for a draw to determine which group they go in. Pot E will be drawn first placing countries in each of the three groups followed by pots F and G. These teams then play each other home and away with the top two teams in each group going through to the Confederations final round.

The top two teams in each of these three semi final groups then form one group and play each other on a home and away basis with the top three teams winning through to the Final in Korea/Japan.