Avoiding the Drop

We’re usually busy during Champions League weeks writing about, well…the Champions League. Like most soccer fans, the purveyors of this establishment watch UEFA’s iteration of this tournament pretty intently. While doing this, however, we’re mostly ignoring CONCACAF’s version; being an off week (and because I already did one of these on the Carling Cup, which resumes today), I figured we’d spend a little time getting our learn on. Your subject: the CONCACAF Champions League.

Date Started: Some form of this tournament has been running since 1962, but the version we’re probably most familiar with started…just last year. That’s when the CONCACAF Champions Cup became the CONCACAF Champions League, adopting a format more recognizable to the fans of the European version.

Who’s Eligible: This was the major thing changed when the Champions Cup became the Champions League. Under the “Cup” format, only eight teams qualified: four from the North American region (usually two from Mexico and two from the U.S.), three from the Central American region, and one from the Caribbean region. Under this format, it was a straight knock-out tournament played over two legs.

When CONCACAF changed the format, they decided this was an antiquated system and tripled the number of teams involved as follows:

From the North American Zone:

• 4 clubs from Mexico
• 4 clubs from the United States
• 1 club from Canada

From the Central American Zone:

• 2 clubs from Costa Rica
• 2 clubs from Honduras
• 2 clubs from El Salvador
• 2 clubs from Guatemala
• 2 clubs from Panama
• 1 club from Nicaragua
• 1 club from Belize

From the Caribbean Zone:

• 3 clubs, decided via the CFU Club Championship

Since there are multiple leagues – and in some cases an Apertura and Clasura season – to contend with, each country determines on their own who gets in. In Mexico, the winner and runner up of both the Apertura and Clasura season gets the bid; in Canada, they send the Canadian Club Champion. The U.S. sends the winners of the U.S. Open Cup, MLS Cup, Supporter’s Shield, and (if one team wins MLS Cup and the Supporter’s Shield) the runners up for the last two tournaments. Unlike UEFA’s league, however, there’s another snag.

See, Central America isn’t exactly a breeding ground for economically stable clubs, which in turn means that the stadiums aren’t exactly up to par. Take, for instance, Nicaraguan champions Real Estelí, based (convenientally) in Estelí. They play their home matches in the Estadio Independencia, which holds about 4,800 people and doesn’t meet CONCACAF’s stadium standards. In fact, no stadium in Nicaragua meets CONCACAF’s standards; therefore, Nicaragua were forced to forfeit their spot in this year’s tournament (the extra bid went to Costa Rica). The same issue kept Belize out (with the extra bid going to Honduras). So simply qualifying doesn’t mean jack if you don’t have a suitable ground (which you probably can’t improve without the money from the Champions League).

How It Works: From here on in, the system is essentially the same as  UEFA’s Champions League, actually. There’s only one preliminary round, which brings the 24 teams down to 16; they break up into four groups, with the top two teams from each group advancing to a knockout round over two legs; rinse, lather, repeat, until there’s only two teams left, then play a final.

Competition Quirks: This can be a fairly quirky tournament, actually, but the biggest quirk is this: unless you are Mexican, you will probably lose. See, Mexican teams have won 25 of the 47 tournaments, and they’ve appeared as a runner up 12 times (how many times a Mexican team lost to another Mexican team I can’t tell you). The U.S. has only won it twice (DC United in 1998 and the LA Galaxy in 2000); there are five different Mexican teams who’ve won it at least twice.

There’s also a quirk in how this is broadcast on television. For some reason, CONCACAF has decided to hold matches on the same weeks that UEFA’s Champions League plays; while I understand not kowtowing to a larger league in principle, in reality this is stupid. If the CONCACAF Champions League played, say, this week, than I’d imagine there’s a much greater chance of it being watched than when it’s played up against the UEFA Champions League. Put another way: would you rather watch Real Madrid-AC Milan or Real España-UNAM? I thought so.