2021 CONCACAF Champions League

The 2021 CONCACAF Champions League (officially the 2021 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons) will be the 13th edition of the CONCACAF Champions League under its current name, and overall the 56th edition of the premier football club competition organized by CONCACAF, the regional governing body of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

2021 CONCACAF Champions League
2021 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League
Tournament details
DatesFebruary – May 2021
Teams16 (from between 6 and 10 associations)

Qualification

A total of 16 teams participate in the CONCACAF Champions League:

Therefore, teams from between 6 and 10 out of the 41 CONCACAF member associations may participate in the CONCACAF Champions League.

North America

The nine direct berths for the North American Football Union (NAFU), which consists of three member associations, are allocated as follows: four berths each for Mexico and the United States, and one berth for Canada.

For Mexico, the champions and runners-up of the Liga MX Apertura and Clausura Liguilla (playoff) tournaments qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League. If there is any team which are finalists of both tournaments, the vacated berth is reallocated using a formula, based on regular season records, that ensures that two teams qualify via each tournament.

For the United States, four teams qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League, three through the Major League Soccer (MLS) season and one through its domestic cup competition:

If there is any team which qualifies through multiple berths, or if there is any Canada-based MLS team which are champions of the MLS Cup, the Supporters' Shield, or conference regular season (not applicable for 2021 CONCACAF Champions League), the vacated berth is reallocated to the U.S.-based team with the best MLS regular season record not yet qualified.

For Canada, the champions of the Canadian Championship, its domestic cup competition which awards the Voyageurs Cup, qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League. While some Canada-based teams compete in MLS, they cannot qualify through either the MLS regular season or playoffs. Moreover, the champions of the Canadian Premier League qualify for the CONCACAF League, meaning a second team from Canada (and a tenth team from North America) may qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League.

Central America

Teams from the Central American Football Union (UNCAF), which consists of seven member associations, must qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League through the CONCACAF League. A total of 18 teams from Central America qualify for the CONCACAF League through their domestic leagues. As all but four teams in the CONCACAF League are from Central America, between two and six teams from Central America may qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League.

Caribbean

Teams from the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), which consists of 31 member associations, qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League either as champions of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship, the first-tier subcontinental Caribbean club tournament, or through the CONCACAF League. Since 2018, the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship is open to teams from professional leagues, where they can qualify as champions or runners-up of their respective association's league in the previous season.[2]

Another three teams from the Caribbean qualify for the CONCACAF League, which are the runners-up and third-placed team of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship, and the winners of a playoff between the fourth-placed team of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship and the champions of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield, the second-tier subcontinental Caribbean club tournament which is open to teams from non-professional leagues, where they can qualify as champions of their respective association's league in the previous season. Therefore, between one and four teams from the Caribbean may qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League.

CONCACAF League
Further information: 2020 CONCACAF League § Qualification

Besides the 10 direct entrants of the CONCACAF Champions League, another 22 teams (1 from North America, 18 from Central America, and 3 from the Caribbean) qualify for the CONCACAF League, a tournament held from July to November prior to the CONCACAF Champions League.[3] The top six teams of the CONCACAF League, i.e., champions, runners-up, both losing semi-finalists, and best two losing quarter-finalists, qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League.

Teams

The following 16 teams (from between six and ten associations) qualify for the tournament.

In the following table, the number of appearances, last appearance, and previous best result count only those in the CONCACAF Champions League era starting from 2008–09 (not counting those in the era of the Champions' Cup from 1962 to 2008).

Direct entrants (10 teams)
Association Team Qualifying method App (last) Previous best (last)
 Mexico (4 berths) Monterrey 2019 Apertura champions 6th (2019) Champions (2019)
Cruz Azul 2020 Clausura regular season 1st place at time of suspension[Note MEX] 7th (2020) Champions (2013–14)
América 2019 Apertura runners-up 6th (2020) Champions (2015–16)
León 2020 Clausura regular season 2nd place at time of suspension[Note MEX] 3rd (2020) Round of 16 (2020)
 United States (4 berths) 2020 MLS Cup champions
2020 MLS Supporters' Shield champions
Portland Timbers MLS is Back Tournament champions[Note USA] 3rd (2016–17) Group stage (2016–17)
TBA[Note USA]
 Canada (1 berth) 2020 Canadian Championship champions
  TBD (CFU berth) 2020 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship champions
Qualified teams from CONCACAF League (6 teams)
Association Team Qualifying method App (last) Previous best (last)
  TBD 2020 CONCACAF League champions (1st overall)
  TBD 2020 CONCACAF League runners-up (2nd overall)
  TBD 2020 CONCACAF League better ranked losing semi-finalists (3rd overall)
  TBD 2020 CONCACAF League worse ranked losing semi-finalists (4th overall)
  TBD 2020 CONCACAF League best ranked losing quarter-finalists (5th overall)
  TBD 2020 CONCACAF League 2nd best ranked losing quarter-finalists (6th overall)
Notes
  1. ^
    Mexico (MEX): The 2020 Clausura tournament of the 2019–20 Liga MX season was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico, and the title was not awarded. The two teams which qualified from the 2020 Clausura to represent the Mexican Football Federation in the 2021 CONCACAF Champions League are Cruz Azul and León, the 2020 Clausura regular season best two teams at the time of suspension.[4]
  2. ^
    United States (USA):

Draw

Location of teams of the 2021 CONCACAF Champions League
North American Zone Central American Zone Caribbean Zone

The draw for the 2021 CONCACAF Champions League will be held in December 2020.

The draw determines each tie in the round of 16 (numbered 1 through 8) between a team from Pot 1 and a team from Pot 2, each containing eight teams. The "Bracket Position Pots" (Pot A and Pot B) contains the bracket positions numbered 1 through 8 corresponding to each tie. The teams from Pot 1 are assigned a bracket position from Pot A and the teams from Pot 2 are assigned a bracket position from Pot B. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other in the round of 16 except for "wildcard" teams which replace a team from another association.

The seeding of teams are based on the CONCACAF Club Index.[7] The CONCACAF Club Index, instead of ranking each team, is based on the on-field performance of the teams that have occupied the respective qualifying slots in the previous five editions of the CONCACAF Champions League. To determine the total points awarded to a slot in any single edition of the CONCACAF Champions League, CONCACAF uses the following formula:

Points per Participation Win Draw Stage advanced Champions
4 3 1 1 2

The slots are assigned by the following rules:[8]

  • For teams from North America, nine teams qualify based on criteria set by their association (e.g., tournament champions, runners-up, cup champions), resulting in an assigned slot (e.g., MEX1, MEX2) for each team. If a team from Canada qualify through the CONCACAF League, they are ranked within their association, resulting in an assigned slot (i.e., CAN2) for them.
  • For teams from Central America, they qualify through the CONCACAF League, and are ranked per association by their CONCACAF League ranking, resulting in an assigned slot (e.g., CRC1, CRC2) for each team.
  • For teams from the Caribbean, the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship champions are assigned the Caribbean champion slot (i.e., CCC1). If teams from the Caribbean qualify through the CONCACAF League, they are ranked per association by their CONCACAF League ranking, resulting in an assigned slot (e.g., JAM1, SUR1) for each team.

The 16 teams are distributed in the pots as follows:

Note: Updated after CONCACAF Champions League matches on 11 March 2020, points which may increase marked by ≥.

Pot Rank Slot 2015–16 2016–17 2018 2019 2020 Total Team
Pot 1 1 MEX2 20 30 25 21 ≥11 ≥107 Cruz Azul
2 MEX1 33 27 12 20 ≥10 ≥102 Monterrey
3 MEX3 23 15 17 26 ≥11 ≥92 América
4 USA3 16 20 17 11 ≥11 ≥75 Portland Timbers
5 CAN1 8 22 21 5 ≥7 ≥63
6 USA2 13 14 7 15 ≥8 ≥57
7 USA1 14 11 11 11 6 53
8 USA4 16 8 5 11 ≥9 ≥49
Pot 2 9 MEX4 18 10 9 4 7 48 León
10 CCC1 8 5 4 4 4 25
????[SCL] TBD
????[SCL] TBD
????[SCL] TBD
????[SCL] TBD
????[SCL] TBD
????[SCL] TBD
Notes
  1. ^ a b c d e f
    SCL The exact slots of the qualified teams from the CONCACAF League will be determined by their association and their CONCACAF League ranking per association.

The following are possible slots for teams which qualify through the CONCACAF League (from Canada, Central America or the Caribbean) which have earned points during the previous five editions of the CONCACAF Champions League (slots which can no longer qualify, or with zero total points not shown):

Rank Slot 2015–16 2016–17 2018 2019 2020 Total Team
PAN1 10 20 8 12 0 50
CRC2 9 14 5 7 4 39
HON2 11 11 5 0 ≥10 ≥37
CRC1 10 8 5 7 6 36
SLV1 7 9 7 5 7 35
HON1 10 11 5 4 5 35
GUA1 8 9 0 4 6 27
PAN2 10 8 0 0 0 18
GUA2 8 6 0 0 0 14
BLZ1 8 4 0 0 0 12
SLV2 6 5 0 0 0 11
NCA1 4 6 0 0 0 10
JAM1 5 0 0 0 0 5
HAI1 0 4 0 0 0 4
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See also

References
  1. "MLS is Back Tournament winner will qualify for 2021 Concacaf Champions League". Major League Soccer. 10 June 2020.
  2. "CONCACAF Announces Expanded CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship for 2018". CONCACAF. 15 December 2017.
  3. "Details revealed for newly launched Scotiabank CONCACAF League". CONCACAF League. 8 May 2017.
  4. "Resolución de la Asamblea Extraordinaria de la LIGA MX". Liga MX. 22 May 2020.
  5. "Concacaf Statement – Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League qualification for the winner of MLS Is Back tournament". Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League. 10 June 2020.
  6. "2020 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Cancelled Due to COVID-19" (Press release). United States Soccer Federation. August 17, 2020. Retrieved August 17, 2020.
  7. "Q&A: Club Index for 2018 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League Draw". CONCACAF.com. 29 November 2017.
  8. "SCCL How Clubs Qualify". CONCACAF Champions League. 9 October 2019.
  9. "2020 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League Ranking" (PDF). CONCACAF.
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