The CONCACAF Champions League is changing itself up for the 2017-18 season. The confederation announced today that they are doing away with the group stage entirely in favor of a knockout only competition. This changes the current setup, which has been in use since 2008.
CONCACAF Champions League Unveils New Format
The new format features 31 total teams and will be broken up into two stages. The first stage will feature 16 teams from the Caribbean and Central America. They will compete in a four round knockout competition. Home and away legs will be played with the aggregate goals winner advancing. The winner of this tournament advances to stage two. There, 15 more teams will join the fray.
There will be four USA based MLS sides, four from Liga MX, the winner of the Canadian Championship, the winner of the Caribbean Cup, and the champions of leagues in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, and Guatemala. the second stage will be played from February to May, much like the current knockout rounds are. The matches will once again be home and away ties with the aggregate goals winner moving to the next round.
The new 31 team format is an increase from the current crop of 24 clubs. That allows smaller sides from the smaller CONCACAF nations to get in on the continental action. It also cuts down on fixture congestion for the MLS and Liga MX teams in the competition. They will no longer have to take as many mid-season trips to exotic locations throughout Central America during one of the most competitive times of the year.
The one thing this new format does not do is get rid of early season knockout matches for MLS teams. The first competitive fixtures of the season for Champions League sides will still be massive clashes agaisnt continental opponents. However, this was not a concern to MLS. They were approached by CONCACAF with the option of having this knockout round in the fall, and the chose to keep it early in their season. From ESPN FC’s report:
“One of the challenges that we were made aware of by MLS was that the August to October [timeframe] was likely to conflict with some important days on their league calendar, like Decision Day and the playoffs,” said the spokesman. “So that was a challenge for them, among others, and alleviating fixture congestion was one of their goals.”
As a result of this, the MLS Champions League sides (New York Red Bulls, FC Dallas, Colorado Rapids, Seattle Sounders, and Toronto FC) will not see continental action this summer and fall. Instead, they will wait until next February to go for North American glory.
The draw for the first phase of the tournament featuring Caribbean and Central American teams will be held this coming May.
