April 25 – San Diego Wave, NY/NJ Gotham and Portland Thorns from the NWSL will be the US cohort of clubs qualified for the inaugural Concacaf W Champions Cup that kicks off in August.
The three NWSL clubs qualified as 2023 NWSL Champion (Portland), Shield Winner (San Diego) and Shield Runner-Up (Portland).
Concacaf’s first regional women’s club competition will have an 11-team entry in the first year with seven teams already qualified.
The gathering pace of the increase in women’s competition and the growth of the leagues and teams across the Concacaf region has been eye-opening. The inaugural W Gold Cup closed in February to great acclaim and hard on its heels came the announcement of the W Champions Cup. FIFA will launch its own Women’s Club World Cup thought details of that competition have yet to be released.
For the W Champions Cup, alongside the big US teams is Mexico’s Tigres UANL Femenil who have qualified as Liga MX Femenil 2023 Apertura Champion. They will be joined by the 2024 Clausura Champion, and the best runner-up across the two halves of the season to make three Mexican qualifiers direct to the group stage.
Costa Rica champions LD Alajuelense have also qualified for the group stage as have Jamaica Women’s Premier League Champions Frazsiers Whip Women FC.
The winners of the Panamanian women’s league have direct entry to the group stage while Canada’s Vancouver Whitecaps will play-off for the 10th group slot against the winner of El Salvador’s Liga Primera Femenina Play-Off.
The 10 clubs will be divided into two groups of five, with each club playing every club in its group once. The top two from each group will qualify for a final tournament to be played at a yet to be announced centralised venue in May 2025.
The draw for the groups will be held June 6.
Competition dates:
Official Draw: June 6, 2024
Preliminary Round: August 13-15, 2024
Group Stage Week 1: August 20-22, 2024
Group Stage Week 2: September 3-5, 2024
Group Stage Week 3: September 17-19, 2024
Group Stage Week 4: October 1-3, 2024
Group Stage Week 5: October 15-17, 2024
Final Round (Semifinals, 3rd Place match, and Final): May 22-25, 2025
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