Dates August 2017 – May 2018 | ||
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Teams 31 (from maximum of 14 associations) | ||
The 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League (officially the 2017–18 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons) will be the 10th edition of the CONCACAF Champions League under its current name, and overall the 53rd edition of the premier football club competition organized by CONCACAF, the regional governing body of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
Contents
Starting from this season, the tournament will be expanded to 31 teams and held in two phases, both of home-and-away single-elimination format, with 16 teams participating in the first phase from August to October, where the first phase winner will advance to the second phase from February to May, joining the other 15 teams to compete for the CONCACAF Champions League title.
The winners of the 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League will qualify as the CONCACAF representative at the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
New format
In December 2016, Manuel Quintanilla, president of the Nicaraguan Football Federation, spoke of a possible new format for the competition, a statement that was later corroborated by Garth Lagerwey, the general manager of the Seattle Sounders FC. On 23 January 2017, CONCACAF confirmed the new format, eliminating the group stage which had been employed since the re-branding of the competition to the CONCACAF Champions League in 2008.
Qualification
A total of 31 teams participate in the CONCACAF Champions League:
Therefore, a maximum of 14 out of the 41 CONCACAF member associations may participate in the tournament.
Clubs may be disqualified and replaced by a club from another association if the club does not have an available stadium that meets CONCACAF regulations for safety. If a club's own stadium fails to meet the set standards then it may find a suitable replacement stadium within its own country. However, if it is still determined that the club cannot provide the adequate facilities then it runs the risk of being replaced.
North America
The nine CONCACAF Champions League berths are allocated to the three North American Football Union (NAFU) member associations as follows: four berths for each of Mexico and the United States, and one berth for Canada. All nine teams enter the second phase.
For Mexico, the winners and runners-up of the Liga MX Apertura and Clausura tournaments earn berths into the tournament. If a team reaches both tournament finals, the vacated berth is reallocated using a formula that ensures that two teams qualify via each tournament.
For the United States, three berths are allocated through the Major League Soccer (MLS) season: one to the winner of the MLS Cup, the championship match of the MLS Cup Playoffs; one to the winner of the Supporters' Shield, i.e., the team with the best regular season record; and one to the regular season winner of either the Eastern Conference or Western Conference which is not the Supporters' Shield winner. The fourth berth is allocated to the winner of its domestic cup competition, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. If a team qualifies through multiple berths, or if any of the MLS berths are taken by a Canada-based MLS team, the berth is reallocated to the best U.S.-based team in the MLS regular season table which has failed to otherwise qualify.
For Canada, the winner of its domestic cup competition, the Canadian Championship, earns the Voyageurs Cup and the lone Canadian berth into the tournament. While some teams from Canada compete in the MLS, they cannot qualify through either the MLS regular season or playoffs.
Central America
The 18 CONCACAF Champions League berths are allocated to the seven Central American Football Union (UNCAF) member associations as follows: three berths for each of Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama and El Salvador, two berths for Nicaragua, and one berth for Belize. Of those, five teams enter the second stage, which are the champions with the better aggregate record from Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama and El Salvador, while the remaining 13 teams enter the first stage.
All of the leagues of Central America employ a split season with two tournaments in one year, so the following teams qualify:
If one or more clubs is precluded, it is supplanted by a club from another Central American association. The reallocation is based on results from previous Champions League tournaments.
Caribbean
The four CONCACAF Champions League berths are allocated to the 31 Caribbean Football Union (CFU) member associations via the CFU Club Championship, a subcontinental tournament open to the clubs of all CFU member associations. The top four finishers of the CFU Club Championship qualify, where the champions enter the second stage, and the remaining three teams enter the first stage. In order for a team to be able to enter the CFU Club Championship, they usually need to finish as the champion or runner-up of their respective association's league in the previous season, but professional teams may also be selected by their associations if they play in the league of another country.
If any Caribbean club is precluded, it is supplanted by the next best finisher from the CFU Club Championship.
Teams
The following 31 teams (from at most 14 associations) qualified for the tournament.
In the following table, the number of appearances, last appearance, and previous best result count only those in the CONCACAF Champions League era starting from 2008–09 (not counting those in the era of the Champions' Cup from 1962 to 2008).
Draw
The draw for the tournament will be held in late May 2017. Further details about the mechanism and seeding of the draw will be confirmed by CONCACAF.