About Concacaf Champions League

The CONCACAF Champions League is the annual international club football championship for teams from the CONCACAF region (North America, Central America, and the Caribbean).

The competition is open to the leading teams in the region and replaced the CONCACAF Champions' Cup, which has run from 1962 to 2008. The winner earns a berth in the next FIFA Club World Cup, which pits each continental confederation's champion against the others annually.

There is a two-legged Preliminary Round for 16 teams, with the eight winners advancing to the Group Stage. The other eight teams (two from the United States, two from Mexico, and one each from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) will be seeded directly into the Group Stage. The winners of the Preliminary Round and the seeded teams will play in the Group Stage in four groups of four, with each team playing the others in its group twice, both home and away.

The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Championship Round, which will consist of home-and-away elimination. The Final Round, in late April, will also be two-legged, home-and-away. In contrast to the Champions' Cup, the away goals rule is used in the Champions League, but will not apply after a tie has gone into extra time.