Mexico has learned the U17 World Cup qualification for the 2026 U17 World Cup to be held in Qatar. Mexico, who went into the Round of 16 in the 2025 edition (the highest of all CONCACAF teams), will once again take part as the seeded team in one of 8 groups that give 1 ticket for the competition but unlike in 2025, they will not be hosting their group. The qualifiers will take place from February 3rd to the 12th.
Mexico was once again seeded for the 2026 U17 CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers. They were
drawn in Group A along with Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Martin, Barbados and Sint Maarten. Unlike in 2025, where Mexico hosted their Group in the Federacion de Futbol Mexicana de Futbol headquarters in Toluca, they will not be hosting in 2026. This time it will be Trinidad and Tobago who will host Group A. All the matches will take place in Haseley Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain.
Mexico will start their campaign by facing off against Saint Martin on Tuesday, February 5th. Mexico will then face off against Sint Maarten on Saturday, February 7th. Mexico will play against Barbados (who they faced off in 2025 and defeated by a 6-0 score) on Monday, February 9th. They will close out the group by facing off against hosts Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday February 12th in the match that should decide who gets the ticket to the World Cup. Only 1 berth to the World Cup will be given in each group.
Mexico will have a lot tougher road for the 2026 World Cup all because the federation didn’t tried to host the group and will be playing as the away side in Trinidad and Tobago. In 2025, Mexico hosted and while they cruised in the first three matches, they deciding match against Nicaragua was a 2-2 tie that gave Mexico the title only thru goal differential. While Mexico completely dominated the match and it took a momentous performance from Nicaragua’s goalkeeper and a last minute goal to get that tie, it still proved that a match could have a chance to go either way even if Mexico is the better team. Now the problem is that with Trinidad and Tobago being the host team for that match, the danger increases even more.
Mexico started their preparation for the U17 World Cup qualifiers under new coach Jurgen Castañeda by facing off against the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Canada in a 4 nation tournament in Puebla in November. After a rough start where they tied the Dominican Republic by a 0-0 score (and ended up losing the PK shootout), they bounced back to defeat Costa Rica by a 4-1 score and Canada by a 3-2 score to win the tournament. They will play in the annual Torneo del Sol in January in the FMF Headquarters in Toluca as the final preparation before traveling to Trinidad in early February. If Mexico wins the group, they will qualify to the World Cup in the age category where Mexico has been the most successful with 2 World Cup wins (2005, 2011), 2 runner up finishes ( 2013, 2019) and a 4th place finish (2015).
