The North, Central American and Caribbean section of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification acted as qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, for national teams which are members of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football. 3.5 slots in the final tournament were available for CONCACAF teams. In a change to previous qualification tournaments for this confederation, the first three rounds were played as knockout rounds, with both the fourth round and the final round played as group stages. The first round was played during the FIFA international dates of 23–31 March 2015. CONCACAF announced the full format details on 12 January 2015. The USA failed to qualify for the World Cup finals for the first time since 1986 after a surprise defeat by Trinidad and Tobago. As a result, Panama reached the World Cup for the first time in their history.
Format
The qualification structure was as follows:
First round: 14 teams played home-and-away over two legs. The winners advanced to the second round.
Second round: 20 teams played home-and-away over two legs. The winners advanced to the third round.
Third round: 12 teams played home-and-away over two legs. The winners advanced to the fourth round.
Fourth round: 12 teams were divided into three groups of four teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The top two of each group advanced to the fifth round.
Fifth round: The six teams which had advanced from the fourth round played home-and-away round-robin matches in one group. The top three qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and the fourth-placed team advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.
Entrants
All 35 FIFA-affiliated national teams from CONCACAF entered qualification. The seeding – used to draw the first four rounds of the qualifiers – was based on the FIFA World Rankings of August 2014.
Bye to fourth round
Bye to third round
Bye to second round
Competing in first round
Schedule
The schedule of the competition was as follows.
The inter-confederation play-offs were scheduled to be played between 6–14 November 2017.
The draw for the fourth round was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK, at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Groups
Group A
Group B
Group C
Fifth round
As with every World Cup qualification campaign since 1998, CONCACAF held a six-team, home-and-away round-robin group known as the 'Hexagonal', or 'Hex', as its final and decisive round. As a result of the abolition of the February and August fixtures from the FIFA calendar, the 'Hex' for the first time was not contained within a single calendar year, but instead began in November 2016 and concluded in October 2017. The draw for the fifth round was held on 8 July 2016, 10:00 EDT, at the CONCACAF headquarters in Miami Beach, United States.
Inter-confederation play-offs
The draw for the inter-confederation play-offs was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK, at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg. The fourth-placed team from CONCACAF was drawn against the fifth-placed team from Asian Football Confederation, with the CONCACAF team hosting the first leg.
Qualified teams
The following three teams from CONCACAF qualified for the final tournament.
