With the first round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers pencilled to commence in March, the Golden Jaguars have been seeded in pot 3 of the second round, which is scheduled to kick off in June.
This was confirmed by the regional confederation, CONCACAF. According to CONCACAF, the teams were seeded based on the November 2023 FIFA rankings, with Guyana placed in the same pot as Saint Kitts and Nevis, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Saint Lucia, and Cuba.
Meanwhile, the teams that are seeded in pot one are Panama, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Honduras, El Salvador, Haiti, and Curaçao, while pot two comprises Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Antigua and Barbuda, and Suriname. Pot four contains Bermuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Montserrat, Barbados, and Dominica, while Pot five features Belize, Aruba, the Cayman Islands, and the Bahamas.
The first round of the qualifiers will feature teams ranked from 29–32 [US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, and Turks and Caicos] and will be contested on a home and away series basis. The two winners from this section will advance to the second round.
Similarly, the second round of the qualifiers will feature two winners from the first round and teams ranked from 1–28 based on the November 2023 FIFA rankings. The teams will be drawn into six groups of five and will play two home and two away fixtures. The resulting group winner and runner-up will advance to the third section.
The third round, which runs from September to November, will feature 12 teams divided into three groups of four. Following home and away group fixtures, the eventual winners of each pool will qualify for the World Cup. The two best-ranked runners-up will advance to the inter-confederation playoff. Following the competition’s expansion, CONCACAF has been awarded eight berths, three of which will be allocated to the host nations of Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America. Three direct slots and two inter-confederation playoffs will be available for the remaining participants.
In their previous 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, Guyana ended with a record of one win and three losses to finish in fourth place on three points. Guyana defeated the Bahamas 4-0 but suffered defeats against Trinidad and Tobago [0-3], St. Kitts and Nevis [0-3], and Puerto Rico [0-2].
