The 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup will be the 13th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup competition and 23rd CONCACAF regional championship overall in CONCACAF's fifty years of existence. The 2015 competition will be hosted in the United States and Canada, and will include a "consolation match" for the first time since 2003. Two matches will be played in Canada, marking the first time the CONCACAF Gold Cup is played in the country.
Qualification for other tournaments
The champion of the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup will qualify for a one-off play-off match against the United States, the champion of the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup, to decide which team will represent CONCACAF in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup. If the United States win the 2015 Gold Cup, they will qualify automatically to the Confederations Cup.
In addition, the top four teams excluding those which have qualified before the tournament, namely the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica (winners of the 2014 Copa Centroamericana), and Jamaica (winners of the 2014 Caribbean Cup), will qualify for play - offs which will determine the final two places of the Copa América Centenario in 2016. In the case where the champion of the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup is not one of the already qualified teams, they will qualify directly to the 2016 Copa América Centenario.
The CONCACAF Gold Cup is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the regional champion of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
The Gold Cup is held every two years. Prior to 2015, when the Gold Cup did not fall on the same year as the FIFA Confederations Cup, the winner, or highest placed team that is a member of both CONCACAF and FIFA, qualified for the next staging of that tournament. Beginning in 2015, the winners of two successive Gold Cups (the 2013 and 2015 editions in the first instance) will face each other in a playoff to determine the CONCACAF entrant to the next Confederations Cup. If the same team has won the Gold Cup on both relevant occasions, there will be no playoff and that team will automatically qualify for the Confederations Cup.
Championships prior to CONCACAF
Prior to the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) being formed in 1961, association football in the region was divided into smaller, regional divisions. The two main bodies consisted of the Confederación Centroamericana y del Caribe de Fútbol (CCCF) founded in 1938 (consisting of Central America and most of the Caribbean) and the North American Football Confederation (NAFC) founded in 1946 (consisting of the North American nations of United States, Mexico, Canada, and Cuba). Each confederation held its own competition, the CCCF Championship and the NAFC Championship. The CCCF held 10 championships from 1941–1961, Costa Rica winning seven (1941, ’46, ’48, ’53, ’55, ’60, ’61), and one each by El Salvador (1943), Panama (1951) and Haiti (1957). The NAFC held four championships in 1947 and 1949 and later, after 41 years of absence, in 1990 and 1991 for the North American zone as the North American Nations Cup with Mexico winning three (1947, ’49, ’91) and Canada winning one (1990) before the introduction of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
CONCACAF Championship
CONCACAF was founded in its current form in 1961 after the merging of NAFC and CCCF and thus resulted in a single competition being held for the continent. However, the first official national team competition was not held until more than two years had passed, with El Salvador being selected as the first hosting country (1963). The CONCACAF Campeonato de Naciones, as it was called, was then held every two years from 1963-1971. The second edition (1965) held in Guatemala, saw Mexico defeat the host in the final of a six-team tournament. The 1967 competition was held in Honduras and saw a third different champion crowned, Guatemala. Costa Rica won their second title as hosts in 1969, knocking off Guatemala, while two years later, Mexico won their second championship as the tournament moved to the Caribbean for the first time, held in Trinidad & Tobago. In 1973, the tournament kept the same format of six teams in one site playing a single round-robin, but now there were bigger stakes attached: the Confederation’s berth in the FIFA World Cup finals. In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the host country pulled off a shocking upset by winning the tournament and claiming a spot in West Germany 1974.
With the Campeonato de Naciones doubling as the final World Cup qualifying tournament, the next two editions were held in Mexico City and Tegucigalpa, Honduras in 1977 and 1981, respectively, the host country came away as champion and grabbed the spots on offers each time. In 1985 and 1989, the winner of the World Cup qualifying tournament was again crowned Confederation champion. Canada and Costa Rica were named champions in 1985 and 1989, respectively, but without ever lifting a trophy.
CONCACAF Gold Cup
In 1990, CONCACAF again created a tournament as its showpiece event to crown the regional champion. The event was named the CONCACAF Gold Cup, with the USA hosting the first competition in 1991. The host country was the inaugural champion of the eight-team tournament. Mexico dominated the remainder of the decade, winning three consecutive CONCACAF Gold Cup titles in 1993, 1996 and 1998. In the 1996 edition, the Gold Cup field included its first guest team, inviting the defending FIFA World Cup Champions Brazil. Guests were invited to participate in the five Gold Cup tournaments from 1996 to 2003. Starting with the 2005 tournament, the Gold Cup again was contested exclusively by nations within CONCACAF.
Starting with the 2000 Gold Cup, the tournament field was increased to twelve teams. Canada won the next tournament, their first major international honour in almost 100 years.
The 2007 Gold Cup was contested in the United States from 6 June to 24 June 2007 where the hosts successfully defended their title beating Mexico in the final 2-1 in Chicago; Canada and Guadeloupe shared third-place. The 2009 Gold Cup took place 3 July to 26 July 2009 with Mexico claiming the title after beating the United States by a 5-0 score. In the 2011 Gold Cup, Mexico defeated the United States 4-2 in the final at the Rose Bowl. The United States had struggled throughout the tournament, but reached the final via a dramatic 1-0 win over Panama.
Since the formation of the Gold Cup in 1991, the CONCACAF Championship has been won six times by Mexico, five times by the United States, and once by Canada. Runners-up include Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Panama.
