CONCACAF Central American Cup

The CONCACAF Central American Cup (Copa Centroamericana) is an annual continental club football competition to be organized by CONCACAF. It is contested by clubs from Central America and serves as that region's qualifying tournament to CONCACAF Champions Cup.

History
On 21 September 2021, CONCACAF announced plans for an expansion of the CONCACAF Champions League tournament from 16 to 27 teams beginning in 2024. As part of the restructuring, regional qualification tournaments will be held for teams from North America, Central America, and the Caribbean beginning in 2023. The CONCACAF Central American Cup will replace CONCACAF League as the sole method of qualification to CONCACAF Champions Cup for teams from Central America.

Format
The tournament will be structured into a group phase and a knockout phase. During the group phase, the 20 teams will be split into four groups of five. Teams will play one game against each team in their group and the top two teams in each group will advance to the knockout phase. The knockout phase will consist of four rounds plus a play-in round for the losers of the quarterfinals.

The two play-in round and four quarterfinal winners qualify for the CONCACAF Champions Cup. The Central American Cup winner will receive a first round bye and advance directly to the Champions Cup Round of 16 while the other qualifying teams enter Round One.

Qualification
A total of 20 teams representing all seven Central American Football Union members will qualify based on the results of their domestic league seasons. The qualification criteria for 18 of the berths is as follows:


 * 3 clubs from 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
 * 3 clubs from 🇸🇻 El Salvador
 * 3 clubs from 🇬🇹 Guatemala
 * 3 clubs from 🇭🇳 Honduras
 * 3 clubs from 🇵🇦 Panama
 * 2 clubs from 🇳🇮 Nicaragua
 * 1 club from 🇧🇿 Belize

For the 2023 edition, Costa Rica and Honduras were awarded an extra slot by having clubs that reached the finals of the 2022 CONCACAF League. For the 2024 edition, Costa Rica and Nicaragua were awarded an extra slot by having clubs that reached the finals of the 2023 CONCACAF Central American Cup.