49ers stadium to host CONCACAF Gold Cup final

Miami (AFP) – The 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup final will be held at Levi’s Stadium, home of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, on July 26, the governing body for North and Central American football said Wednesday.

Levi’s Stadium, the state-of-the-art facility in suburban Santa Clara that hosted last season’s Super Bowl 50, is one of 14 venues in 13 cities that will host matches in the 14th edition of the regional competition.

In addition to hosting the Super Bowl last year, the stadium was the venue for the opening match of the 2016 Copa America Centenario.

This year’s edition of the Gold Cup will visit venues that include four first-time hosts in Santa Clara, Cleveland, Ohio, Nashville, Tennessee, and San Antonio, Texas.

Following the completion of the Copa Centroamericana earlier this month, champion Honduras has qualified for the 2017 Gold Cup, along with El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama. 

Those teams join seven other national teams that will participate: Canada, Mexico and the United States from North America, as well as Curacao, French Guiana, Jamaica, and Martinique from the Caribbean.

Haiti and Nicaragua will face off in a home-and-away play-in series during the FIFA match dates on March 24 and 28 to decide the Gold Cup’s 12th and last berth.

Some details of the schedule were announced in December, with the United States placed in Group B and set to play pool matches in Nashville and Cleveland and Mexico placed in Group C, the groups and full schedule will be unveiled in March.