The CONCACAF Champions League is an annual club football competition for the top clubs in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. The tournament employs a 16-team knockout format and is played between February and May. The winner of the competition automatically qualifies for the quarter-finals of the FIFA Club World Cup. The competition has been completed 54 times through the 2019 event, with 56 champions due to a three-way shared title in the 1978 competition. The title has been won by 27 clubs, 13 of which have won the title more than once.
About CONCACAF Champions League in brief
The CONCACAF Champions League is an annual club football competition for the top clubs in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. The tournament employs a 16-team knockout format and is played between February and May. The winner of the competition automatically qualifies for the quarter-finals of the FIFA Club World Cup. The competition has been completed 54 times through the 2019 event, with 56 champions due to a three-way shared title in the 1978 competition. The title has been won by 27 clubs, 13 of which have won the title more than once. Mexican side Club América are the most successful club in the competition’s history with seven titles, followed by fellow Mexican-side Cruz Azul with six titles. The most successful non-Mexican club is Saprissa of Costa Rica with three titles. The current champions are Monterrey, who defeated Tigres UANL in the 2019 final. Prior to 2018, the tournament had two parts: a group stage held from August to October, and a knockout phase held from March to May of the following year. Ten teams qualify automatically based on domestic performance, along with the top six teams of the CONCACaf League, played at the end of the previous calendar year.
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 NorthernCentral American qualification competition. From 2004 to 2008, the last format, used from 2004 to 2004, had eight teams competing – four from the North American zone, three from the Central American zone and one from the Caribbean zone. Since 2005, the champion of the Champions’ Cup would be one of the three CONCACACAF teams invited to the Copa Sudamericana Copa Libertadores. The only four teams to successfully defend the trophy are all Mexican: Amé rica, Cruz Azul, Pachuca and Monterrey. 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. A preliminary round was used to reduce the number of teams from 24 to 16. A group stage was played under a revamped format from 1997 to 1997.
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This page is based on the article CONCACAF Champions League published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 18, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
