User:Bmf 051/sandbox/2014–15 CONCACAF Champions League

The CONCACAF Champions League was an annual continental club football competition. The following is a proposed redesign for the current tournament, based on the UEFA Champions League. It is unlikely that such a design would work in reality, because many of the Caribbean Football Union associations could not be relied upon to provide teams on a regular basis (see the low participation for some nations in CFU Club Championship). Also, many associations do not have stadiums that meet FIFA and CONCACAF requirements for hosting matches in a tournament such as this. But this is just an idea.

The tournament would have consisted of a qualification round and a play-off round, with 16 surviving teams entering the group stage, joining 16 teams that qualify automatically. The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four teams and played each other in a double round-robin system. The eight group winners and eight runners-up proceeded to the knockout phase that culminated with the two-legged final. Cruz Azul were the title holders.

Herediano won the tournament, defeating Cruz Azul 4–3 on aggregate in the final.

Qualification
The CONCACAF Champions League would commence with a double round-robin group stage of 32 teams, which is preceded by two qualification 'streams' for teams that do not receive direct entry to the tournament proper. The two streams are divided between teams qualified by virtue of being league champions, and those qualified by virtue of finishing 2nd–5th in their national championship.

The number of teams that each association enters into the CONCACAF Champions League is based upon their CONCACAF country coefficient. These coefficients are generated by the results of clubs representing each association during the previous five Champions League seasons. The higher an association's coefficient, the more teams represent the association in the Champions League, and the fewer qualification rounds the association's teams must compete in. However, associations are limited to 1 entrant for every 3 teams at the highest level of that association's league system.

Sixteen teams qualify directly to the group stage of the tournament from associations ranked 1 through 11. Eight of the remaining sixteen qualifying places are granted to the winners of a two round qualifying tournament between the remaining 28 national champions, within which those champions from associations with higher coefficients receive byes to the second qualifying round (the "play-off round"). The other eight are granted to the winners of a one round play-off round between the 16 clubs from the associations ranked 1 through 10 (except Canada), which have qualified based upon finishing second, third, fourth, or fifth in their respective national league (or that have qualified by winning a domestic tournament, such as the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup).

Tournament
The tournament proper begins with a group stage of 32 teams, divided into eight groups. Seeding is used whilst making the draw for this stage, whilst teams from the same country may not be drawn into groups together. Each team meets the others in its group home and away in a round-robin format. The winning team and the runners-up from each group then progress to the next round.

For this stage, the winning team from one group plays against the runners-up from another group, and teams from the same association may not be drawn against each other. From the quarter-finals onwards, the draw is entirely random, without association protection. The tournament uses the away goals rule: if the aggregate score of the two games is tied, then the team who scored more goals at their opponent's stadium advances. If the teams are tied on away goals, an 30 additional minutes (two 15 minute periods) of extra time will be played. If the match remains tied, the game will go to penalty kicks. This is a variation of the method used in the UEFA Champions League and other tournaments, the difference being that the away goals rule is not applied after extra time.

Distribution (2014–15)
Notes:

Association team allocation
A total of 60 teams (61 if the title holders do not qualify via their domester league) from 39 of the 41 CONCACAF member associations would participate in the CONCACAF Champions League (the exceptions being Montserrat and Sint Maarten, which have not organized domestic leagues since 2004 and 2007, respectively). The association rankings, based on the CONCACAF country coefficients, are used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:


 * Associations 1 and 2 each five teams qualify.
 * Association 3 (Canada) has one team qualify.
 * Associations 4 and 5 have four teams qualify.
 * Associations 6 and 7 have three teams qualify.
 * Associations 8–10 each have two teams qualify.
 * Associations 11–39 each have one team qualify.

Association ranking (2014–15)
For the 2014–15 CONCACAF Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their CONCACAF country coefficient.. These coefficients take into account their performance in the CONCACAF Champions League from 2009–10 to 2013–14. Associations with the same coefficient have been ranked based on their performance in past CFU Club Championships (Belize was automatically ranked ahead of all Caribbean teams that had the same coefficient as them).

Teams
League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses (TH: Title holders).

Notes:

Round and draw dates
The schedule of the competition is as follows.

Qualifying round
In the qualifying round and the play-off round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their CONCACAF club coefficients, and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams with the same club coefficient were ranked based on their league's ranking. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other. The losing teams entered the CONCACAF SuperLiga play-off round.

The draw for the first and second qualifying rounds was held on 18 July 2014. The first legs were played on 29 and 30 July, and the second legs were played on 5 and 6 August 2014.


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Play-off round
The play-off round was split into two separate sections: one for champions (Champions Route) and one for non-champions (League Route). The losing teams in both sections entered the CONCACAF SuperLiga group stage.

The draw for the play-off round was held on 8 August 2014. The first legs were played on 19 and 20 August, and the second legs were played on 26 and 27 August 2014.

!colspan=6|Champions Route

!colspan=6|League Route


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Group stage
A total of 32 teams play in the group stage: 16 teams which enter in this stage, and the 16 winners of the play-off round (8 from the Champions Route, 8 from the League Route).

The 32 teams were allocated into four pots based on their 2014 CONCACAF club coefficients, with the title holders being placed in Pot 1 automatically. Teams were drawn into eight groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other. The draw was held on 28 August 2014.

In each group, teams will play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The matchdays will be 16–17 September, 30 September–1 October, 21–22 October, 4–5 November, 25–26 November, and 9–10 December 2014. The group winners and runners-up will advance to the round of 16. The fourth-placed teams will enter the CONCACAF SuperLiga round of 48, while the third-placed teams will enter the CONCACAF SuperLiga round of 32.

Tiebreakers
The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:
 * 1) higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
 * 2) superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question;
 * 3) higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question;
 * 4) higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question;
 * If, after applying criteria 1 to 4 to several teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6 to 8 apply;
 * 1) superior goal difference from all group matches played;
 * 2) higher number of goals scored from all group matches played;
 * 3) higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons.

Group B

 * Tiebreakers
 * Municipal are ahead of Pachuca based on goal difference (−1 to −3).

Group C

 * Tiebreakers
 * Alajuelense are ahead of Pastures based on head-to-head goal difference (4–2).

Group D

 * Tiebreakers
 * USAC are ahead of Sporting Kansas City based on head-to-head goal difference (6–2).

Group F

 * Tiebreakers
 * Santos Laguna are ahead of Comunicaciones based on head-to-head points earned (6–0).

Group H

 * Tiebreakers
 * Tauro are ahead of Belmopan Bandits based on goal difference (–2 to –5).

Knockout phase
In the knockout phase, teams will play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis. The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:
 * In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners were seeded, and the eight group runners-up were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association could not be drawn against each other.
 * In the draws for the quarter-finals onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association could not be drawn against each other.
 * If any association had sent two teams to the semifinals, those teams would have automatically been paired with each other and the draw would have only been used to determine which team hosted the second leg of each semifinal match-up.

Round of 16
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 15 December 2014. The first legs were played on 17, 18, 24 and 25 February, and the second legs were played on 10, 11, 17 and 18 March 2015.


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Quarter-finals
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 20 March 2015. The first legs were played on 14 and 15 April, and the second legs were played on 21 and 22 April 2015.


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Semi-finals
The draw for the semi-finals and final was held on 24 April 2015. The first legs were played on 5 and 6 May, and the second legs were played on 12 and 13 May 2015.


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Final
The first leg of the final was played on 30 May, and the second leg was played on 6 June 2015.


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