CONCACAF Champions League

Competition format

Each tournament has two parts — a group stage held from August to October, and a knockout phase held from March to May of the following year. The group stage consists of 24 teams playing in eight groups of three teams each, with each team playing the other two teams in its group twice. United States and Mexican sides cannot be drawn into the same group. The winner of each of the eight groups advances to the quarterfinals. Each phase of the knockout rounds (quarterfinals, semifinals, finals) consist of a two-leg home-and-away series with the winner determined by aggregate goal differential. Seeding in the knockout phase is determined by performance during the group stage.

Prior to the 2012–13 season, the competition had involved four groups of four, with one Mexican team and one U.S. team in each group.

History

The competition was initially created as a possible measure to enter the South American Copa Libertadores, a competition organized by CONMEBOL. Prior to 2008, the tournament was officially called the "CONCACAF Champions' Cup", but was usually referred to simply as the "Champions' Cup". The competition has had several different formats over its lifetime. From 1962 until 1995, the finalists, or clubs participating in a final round, would be decided by clubs who qualify via two separate brackets: a Caribbean Island qualifier and a Northern/Central American qualification competition. Initially, only the champions of the North American leagues participated. In 1971, the runners-up of a few North American leagues began to join and the tournament began to be expanded, incorporating round-robin group phases and more teams. After the creation of the United States' Major League Soccer, the competition became a straight knockout competition from 1997 until it was revamped into the current tournament in 2008.

Champions' Cup era (1962–2008)

The competition's former format, a knockout tournament called the Champions' Cup, was played under a variety of formats. The last format, used from 2004 to 2008, had eight teams competing – four from the North American zone (two from Mexico, two from the United States), three from the Central American zone, and one from the Caribbean zone. Since 2005, the champion of the competition also gained entry into the FIFA Club World Cup, giving clubs an added incentive for a strong participation and greater interest from fans. Also, the Champions' Cup Runner-up would be one of the three CONCACAF invitees to the Copa Sudamericana.

Champions League era (2008–present)

The CONCACAF Executive Committee at their 2006 November meeting decided to "act upon" a proposal—first delineated in 2003 by then Head of Special Projects Mel Brennan—at their next meeting by the CONCACAF Secretariat to develop the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup into a larger "Champions League" style event. The CONCACAF Executive Committee reported on November 14, 2007 some of the details.

The previous Champions' Cup format was used as planned in March and April 2008. Then, a newly expanded Champions League tournament was conducted starting in August 2008 and concluding in May 2009. The initial setup involved 24 teams and featured a Preliminary Round contested by 16 teams to reduce the field to 16 teams, which were separated into four groups of four teams. After the Group Stage, the Championship Round are held from the Quarterfinal Round onward.

Since 2012, the 24 teams have been divided into eight groups of three teams. The first placed teams qualify for the quarter finals. The quarter finals, semi finals and final are played over two legs.

Beginning with the 2017–18 edition, 31 club teams will compete in the Champions League, running from February to May. Caribbean teams will qualify for the abbreviated tournament through a separate qualification tournament the year before.

Qualification

A total of 24 teams participate in the CONCACAF Champions League: nine from the North American Zone (from three associations), twelve from the Central American Zone (from at most seven associations), and three from the Caribbean Zone (from at most three associations).

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 American Zone

Nine teams from the North American Football Union qualify to the Champions League. Mexico and the United States are each allocated four berths, the most of any of CONCACAF's member associations, while Canada is granted one berth in the tournament.

For Mexico, the winners and runners-up of the Liga MX Apertura and Clausura tournaments earn berths in Pot 3 of the tournament's group stage.

For the United States, three berths are allocated through the Major League Soccer (MLS) regular season and playoffs; the fourth berth is allocated to the winner of its domestic cup competition, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. If U.S.-based, the MLS Cup winner, the Supporters' Shield winner, and the other regular season conference winner are placed in Pot 3 along with the U.S. Open Cup winner. If a Canada-based team occupies any MLS-allocated berth, or any U.S-based team qualifies for the Champions League by more than one method, the Champions League place is allocated to the U.S.-based team with the best MLS regular season record which has failed to otherwise qualify.

Since Canada hosted the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, the Canadian Championship was moved from April–May to April–August (with no matches occurring between May and August), overlapping with the start of the Champions League. Therefore, for the 2015–16 tournament only, the lone Canadian berth into the tournament, in Pot 1, was given to the best Canadian team in the MLS regular season. The setup will be reverted for the 2016–17 tournament, where once again the Voyageurs Cup competed for in the Canadian Championship, earns the lone Canadian berth into the tournament (starting from the 2015 Canadian Championship, the winner earns the berth in the next calendar year instead of the same calendar year as in previous tournaments).

Central American Zone

Twelve teams from the Central American Football Union qualify to the Champions League. The allocation is as follows: two berths for each of Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama and El Salvador, and one berth for each of Nicaragua and Belize. The teams from Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, and Panama are placed in Pot 2 and the teams from El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Belize are placed in Pot 1.

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 Zone

Three teams from the Caribbean Football Union qualify to the Champions League. The three berths, in Pot 1, are allocated to the top three finishers of the CFU Club Championship, a subcontinental tournament for clubs from associations of the Caribbean Football Union. In order for a team to qualify for 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 fourth-place finisher from the CFU Club Championship.

Stadium standards

If a club fails to meet the standards for its home stadium, the club must find a suitable stadium in its own country, and if the club fails to provide the adequate facilities, it runs the risk of being replaced by another team. Real Esteli of Nicaragua failed stadium requirements and was replaced by another team for the 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons. Estadio Independencia in Nicaragua has since been renovated, including upgrades to stadium lighting, and Nicaraguan teams now participate. The qualifying team from Belize has failed stadium requirements and has been replaced by another team in each season from 2009–10 through 2014–15.

If one or more of the twelve Central American clubs is precluded, it will be supplanted by a club from the best Central American league, based on results from the current Champions League. If any Caribbean club is precluded, it will be supplanted by the club who finished 4th in the CFU Club Championship.

Attendance Record

During Champions League era:

Sponsorship

The CONCACAF Champions League has several corporate sponsors: Scotiabank (which has been a title sponsor of the Champions League since 2014-2015), Miller Lite, MoneyGram, Maxxis Tires, and Nike. The sponsors' names appear on the boards around the perimeter of the field, and boards for pre-game and post-game interviews and press conferences. Nike is also the official provider of game balls and referee uniforms.

Champions Cup Era

¹ No final match was held; the championship was decided by a final round.

² Championship won due to withdrawal and/or disqualification of all other teams.

³ Universidad de Guadalajara, Comunicaciones and Defence Force were all declared joint winners after the 1978 final tournament was cancelled due to administrative problems and disagreements on match dates.

Champions League era

Notes:

Winners

(When sorted by years won or lost, the table is sorted by the date of each team's first win)

Best result by country

Notes:

Results by country

Results are listed in the Wins-Losses-Draws format. Numbers in parentheses are average points (3 for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss).
Results include matches from preliminary rounds, group play, and knockout play. *Penalty shoot-out considered a separate event from the match which preceded it.

Awards