January 24 – CONCACAF has added a new international club competition and revamped its Champions League format to bring it into a single calendar season for clubs, rather than spanning two seasons currently.
The new competitions will increase the number of clubs in CONCACAF competition from 24 to 31, beginning with the 2017/18 season of club season.
The new Champions League format will be played between February and May each year from 2018. The new regional club competition will begin in August 2017 with 16 clubs. Thirteen will come from Central America (two each from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, and one from Belize), and three from the Caribbean.
The winners of the new competition, which completes in October, will qualify for the Champions League where they will be joined by four teams from the MLS and four from the LigaMX, five teams from Central America. There will be automatic qualifier from the Caribbean region and one from Canada.
“The expansion of the CONCACAF club competitions platform to 31 clubs is an important step forward in the Confederation’s efforts to include more Member Association representation and increase participation at the highest levels of our competitions,” said CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani.
“The continued growth of club competition in CONCACAF is representative of the strengthening of the sport throughout the region, and along with the new format for the Champions League, provides the base for a formidable club championship structure that will entertain and engage fans region-wide for years to come.”
The new Champions League format will see teams play knock-out rounds from the start, replacing the old group stages, a move that will “increase the overall amount of relevant games for fans and clubs and compact the championship schedule to avoid over-burden on club teams’ schedules,” said CONCACAF.
The new tournament will also be played as a knock-out competition over two legs.
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