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CONCACAF League expanded to include Canadian teams

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Miami (Monday, February 11, 2019) – The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) today announced that the Scotiabank Concacaf League – the official club championship for Central American and Caribbean clubs – will expand from 16 to 22 teams to include five additional Central American clubs and one Canadian Premier League club for 2019 and beyond. The competition will additionally now serve as the qualifying tournament for Central America clubs to the Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League. 

“We are very excited to take a major step forward to enhance our expanded Concacaf Club Competition Platform,” said Concacaf General Secretary Philippe Moggio. “We are creating a larger Scotiabank Concacaf League that will increase the opportunities for our members in the Caribbean and Central America to play more relevant, competitive matches. With 22 teams participating, the window of access is wider, providing greater chances to qualify to the region’s premier tournament for clubs, the Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League.” 

The competition, which will continue to be played in a knockout format, will now kick off with a preliminary round in July. The 12 clubs set to participate in this initial round will be drawn into six home-and-away fixtures. The winners, to be determined on aggregate goals, will join the top nine ranked Central American clubs and the runner-up of the Caribbean Club Championship in the Round of 16.

 

How the expanded Scotiabank Concacaf League works – Watch the video!

 

 

 


In addition to qualifying its champion to the Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League, the tournament will qualify an additional five teams. At the end of the competition, clubs will we ranked 1-15, in accordance with the competition tie-breaking procedure. The top five ranked clubs will automatically qualify for the 2020 edition of the Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League.

For 2019, the Member Association slots have been allocated as follows (in alphabetical order by Member Association): 

Preliminary Round (12 clubs): Belize 1, Canada 2, Caribbean 3, Caribbean 4, Costa Rica 3, El Salvador 2, El Salvador 3, Guatemala 2, Guatemala 3, Honduras 3, Nicaragua 2 and Panama 3

Round of 16 (10 + 6 winners of the Preliminary Round): Caribbean 2, Costa Rica 1, Costa Rica 2, El Salvador 1, Guatemala 1, Honduras 1, Honduras 2, Nicaragua 1, Panama 1 and Panama 2.

The venue, date and time for the official draw that will sort the participating clubs for the preliminary round and round of 16 will be announced in the coming months.

Inaugurated in 2017, the Scotiabank Concacaf League has opened the door for a wider participation of Caribbean and Central American clubs, providing them an opportunity to play more relevant matches, at a higher level and the possibility of qualifying for the Confederations premier competition for clubs, the Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League.

 

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Zem Contributor

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Six clubs qualifying for Champions League is exciting.

The only thing I'm not sure about is how the CPL club is going to be chosen since the first season hasn't been played yet. I wonder if there might be league cup or something like that to determine this season's entrant before July?

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SpursFlu Grand Master

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I like this...

 

Something missed and you have to read thru a couple of times. There will be 10 teams qualifying straight to Champions league. 1 Voyageurs Cup and 9 teams between MX and MLS. That means either or Mexico or MLS just got an extra spot. Probably MLS because you have to keep them happy of course

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Zem Contributor

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20 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

Something missed and you have to read thru a couple of times. There will be 10 teams qualifying straight to Champions league. 1 Voyageurs Cup and 9 teams between MX and MLS. That means either or Mexico or MLS just got an extra spot. Probably MLS because you have to keep them happy of course

That's the same as before based on what they said, the Caribbean champion still qualifies directly to the CCL. So only the five central american CCL teams move: 4 MEX, 4 USA, 1 CAN, 1 Caribbean.

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Zem Contributor

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2 minutes ago, Blackdude said:

Still that equals to 10. So who is team #11? Does the defending champion get a spot?

Six CONCACAF League teams qualify for Champions League, 10 direct qualifiers + 6 CL qualifiers

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SpursFlu Grand Master

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7 minutes ago, Zem said:

That's the same as before based on what they said, the Caribbean champion still qualifies directly to the CCL. So only the five central american CCL teams move: 4 MEX, 4 USA, 1 CAN, 1 Caribbean.

Yah i see that now... huh. Lucky them. Overall much better though some will find confusing. Nonetheless, CPL team in and they just managed to make both tournaments simultaneously better. Bravo

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SpursFlu Grand Master

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2 minutes ago, Blackdude said:

Yeah, you're right. I still find it weird that Caribbean champion still gets in CCL while Costa Rican champion has to go through CL.

Yah but keep in mind. Now all 3 Costa Rican teams could now get thru. Make final 4 and your thur. Probably top 2 +- quaterfinal loosers thru also. Not an easy tournament. Big challenge for Pacific fc

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nfitz Proficient

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3 hours ago, SpursFlu said:

Yah but keep in mind. Now all 3 Costa Rican teams could now get thru. 

Good point. If Guatemala, Nicaragua, and/or Belize keep getting disqualified, Costa Rica (or Panama) could even get 4 teams through Concacaf League to Champions League, based on them and Panama getting the disqualified teams' spots in past years.

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Gian-Luca Grand Master

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I know that at least one MLS team, likely all three, were pissed when they were told that they weren't going to have access to a second opportunity to make the CCL. I am guessing the news that the  2nd spot only gets you into the Concacaf league, while the V Cup gets you direct CCL access (and it's a tourney currently stacked in the MLS teams favour especially TFC this year) might  have placated them a little 

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RJB Experienced

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I'd like to see some more North American teams having to go through the CONCACAF League.  That champions from Costa Rica need to go via the CONCACAF League, but MLS sends 4 teams directly is unfair in my opinion.  Unfair too that Mexico gets 4.  It'd be nice to see at least one of the clubs from each of those countries have to go this route. 

On 2/12/2019 at 6:43 PM, Gian-Luca said:

I know that at least one MLS team, likely all three, were pissed when they were told that they weren't going to have access to a second opportunity to make the CCL. I am guessing the news that the  2nd spot only gets you into the Concacaf league, while the V Cup gets you direct CCL access (and it's a tourney currently stacked in the MLS teams favour especially TFC this year) might  have placated them a little 

As for this, well, perhaps they should qualify via the league they play in???  I think it's total BS that a club that is owned by MLS gets a Canadian Champions League spot.  I've never been a fan of this, but have tolerated it because who else could Canada send?  But now we have our own league, I think there's no excuse for allowing an American club to take our spot.

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Kent Grand Master

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On 2/22/2019 at 11:10 PM, RJB said:

I'd like to see some more North American teams having to go through the CONCACAF League.  That champions from Costa Rica need to go via the CONCACAF League, but MLS sends 4 teams directly is unfair in my opinion.  Unfair too that Mexico gets 4.  It'd be nice to see at least one of the clubs from each of those countries have to go this route. 

As for this, well, perhaps they should qualify via the league they play in???  I think it's total BS that a club that is owned by MLS gets a Canadian Champions League spot.  I've never been a fan of this, but have tolerated it because who else could Canada send?  But now we have our own league, I think there's no excuse for allowing an American club to take our spot.

Slight correction. If "MLS" sends any teams directly to CCL, they only send 3 teams, not 4. USA has 4 spots, 3 of which are given based on MLS performance. The 4th is the US Open Cup champion, which is always an MLS team, but like the Voyageurs Cup, it is not necessarily an MLS team that wins that competition.

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Zem Contributor

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2 hours ago, xabuep2 said:

Forge FC  will play vs Antigua GFC in the preliminary round. The winner will play vs Olimpia of Honduras 

(Well assuming Forge FC is the Canadian representative)

That's Marco Dominguez's team! Seems like a decent draw, at the very least we dodged Saprissa.

It's also worth noting that if they advance they'll face Honduran giants Olimpia.

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narduch Grand Master

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The CPL rep will be obvious underdogs in both rounds.

The way the tournament is seeded it will be tough going for the CPL rep for years to come. Unless they get lucky with the draw.

Antigua was in the 2016/17 Champions League and finished last in a group with NY Red Bulls and Allianza of El Salvador.

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Kent Grand Master

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Good first round match up for the Canadian rep. Avoided Saprissa, Marathon, and whoever earns Panama's spot. The Haitian team is likely the weakest that we could have been drawn with, but the Salvadoran and Guatemalan teams are probably next in line.

Very interested to see how this goes. If we progress to the Olimpia match, that will be very tough.

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Obinna Grand Master

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On 5/31/2019 at 9:28 AM, Kent said:

Good first round match up for the Canadian rep. Avoided Saprissa, Marathon, and whoever earns Panama's spot. The Haitian team is likely the weakest that we could have been drawn with, but the Salvadoran and Guatemalan teams are probably next in line.

Very interested to see how this goes. If we progress to the Olimpia match, that will be very tough.

I think Forge versus Olimpia will be a very interesting match up, should it happen. They are clearly one of the best CPL teams and Borges, Welshman and Bekker are all players that can probably hurt the Hondurans. Regardless of how their Voyaguers Cup tie plays out (they are currently at a disadvantage due to that last-minute away goal), the experience should come in handy.

If you think 1 Honduran (Escalante) getting under your skin is bad, try 11!

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