CONCACAF League

About CONCACAF League

CONCACAF League History, Format, Organization, Media Coverage

The CONCACAF League is a competition played by teams from the North, Central America, and the Caribbean. It’s considered as the preliminary stage for the CONCACAF Champions League since the winner and the five best runners-up earn a spot in that competition.

This tournament, founded in 2017, is played in a two-legged format. All stages of the competition require teams to play against their opponents twice, and away goals are considered as a tiebreaker. Teams included in this tournament earn their spot after finishing their local tournaments in the runners-up position, or in some cases, as the champions of lower-caliber leagues.

A total of 22 teams participate in this competition. Only one North American team makes the competition. As for the rest of the slots, the Central American Zone boasts 18 representatives while the Caribbean Zone boasts only three. A draw is held to decide the match-ups for the preliminary round.

The 2019 edition was introduced with a format change which saw teams from eleven countries entering the competition. As previously stated, eighteen come from Central America. On the other hand, one spot is allocated to a Canadian side. Of the 22 participants, only 12 kick off the preliminary round. After that comes the round of 16 and here, the remaining 10 contestants make their entrance.

As mentioned earlier, the entire tournament follows a two-legged format, including the final. The away-goal rule is used to separate two sides if the game is tied on aggregate. However, this does not apply to the final where extra time and penalty shootouts are the only tie-breakers.