User:Bmf 051/sandbox/2015–16 CONCACAF SuperLiga

The CONCACAF SuperLiga was a proposed annual continental club football competition. The tournament would be a secondary tournament to an expanded version of the CONCACAF Champions League. It would serve the same purpose as the UEFA Europa 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 consist of two qualification rounds and a play-off round, with 22 surviving teams entering the group stage, joining 16 teams that qualify automatically and 10 losers from the play-off round of the CONCACAF Champions League. The 48 teams are drawn into twelve groups of four teams and play each other in a double round-robin system. The twelve group winners and twelve runners-up proceed to the knockout phase, joined by the third-placed teams from the group stage of the Champions League, ultimately culminating with the two-legged final.

UNAM were the title holders. As they automatically qualified for the 2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League as the SuperLiga title holder and advanced to the knockout stage, they were not able to defend their title.

Toluca won the tournament, defeating Santos de Guápiles 3–2 on aggregate in the final after extra time.

Format changes
Here is a list of changes I made from the previous tournament. Many of these changes were made to make matches in the group stage and later rounds more competitive, decrease the size of the group stage from 80 teams to 48, and eliminate the round of 48:
 * A second qualification round was added.
 * If the CFU Club Championship title holders did not qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League, they would have earned an automatic berth in the SuperLiga, entering at the group stage.
 * The number of teams entering from the CONCACAF Champions League after being eliminated from that tournament was be reduced. Previously, any team eliminated from the Champions League before the knockout stage entered the SuperLiga (44 teams total). Now, only teams losing in the second qualifying round and play-off round, and the third-placed teams from the group stage will enter the SuperLiga (30 teams total), but teams losing in the first qualifying round and fourth-placed teams from the group stage (as well as teams that reach the knockout round) will not.
 * While Canadian teams were still ineligible for the spots earned by American teams in MLS, had a Canadian team finished in a qualifying spot that would have earned an American team qualification to either tournament, that spot would have been vacated in favor of an American team (as was done in past tournaments) and that Canadian team would have been given a supplemental bid in the same round of the same tournament (new for this tournament). If a Canadian team had qualified for more than one spot (either by having the best record among Canadian MLS teams, winning the Canadian Championship, or by earning a supplemental bid), they would have vacated all but one of those bids. Any vacated supplemental Canadian bids would not have been filled by other teams, and any other vacated Canadian bids would only have been filled by Canada's #2 team (if that team already had a better bid, then their vacated bid would have remained unfilled). Under these new rules, Canada could have potentially earned more than two bids (including multiple Champions League bids) under certain circumstances.
 * Four associations earned an additional spot in the tournament as a reward for Fair Play. Ideally, I'd like to award these in a similar fashion to the UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking, but CONCACAF doesn't keep official Fair Play rankings. I constructed my own rankings instead, using CONCACAF club and national tournament matches played between 1 May 2014 and 30 April 2015. To be ranked, an association must play more than the minimum number of games required. This number is determined by taking the total games played in all CONCACAF competitions and dividing it by 41 (the number of associations in CONCACAF). Once the top 4 associations were determined, the highest finisher from those associations' Fair Play leagues (excluding teams that have already qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League or CONCACAF SuperLiga) received a berth in the SuperLiga's first qualifying round.
 * For countries that conducted a domestic cup, winners of those tournaments earned an automatic berth to the CONCACAF SuperLiga, taking their association's top seed. This means that the domestic cup winners from the United States and Canada no longer received automatic berths in the CONCACAF Champions League. This proved to be a moot point, because the 2014 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup winners (Seattle Sounders) qualified for the Champions League via their league performance, and the 2015 Canadian Championship was moved from just before the start of the Champions League until just after the start, meaning the Canadian Champion would not be decided in time to qualify for the Champions League. Both Copa MX winners would have earned a place in the tournament (the winner of 2015 Supercopa MX would have earned Mexico's first bid, and the loser would have earned the third bid). However Santos Laguna, winners of the Apertura 2014 Copa MX, qualified for the Champions League by winning the 2015 Liga MX Torneo Clausura and were replaced in the SuperLiga by Monterrey, the team with the best aggregate record during the 2014–15 Liga MX season that had not already qualified for North American qualification. After Santos were removed from the Supercopa MX due to their participation in the 2015 Campeón de Campeones (played on the same day in the same stadium), Puebla (winners of the Clausura 2015 Copa MX) were automatically given the top Mexican seed in the SuperLiga.
 * The maximum number of combined bids in both tournaments that an association could earn was set at 2 for every 3 teams at the highest level of that association's league system. This is on top of any existing restrictions on the number bids an association may earn. In the Champions League, each association will still earn no more than 1 bid for every 3 teams at the highest level of its league system (or the number of bids allocated to that association based on its association ranking, whichever is less). In the SuperLiga, the maximum number of bids was still 3. These restrictions do not apply to title holder bids, fair play bids, supplemental bids, or SuperLiga bids given to teams that are eliminated from the Champions League.


 * This new restriction meant that Canada will now earn 1 bid in the SuperLiga, instead of 3. The table below gives the maximum number of bids an association may earn in each tournament based on the number of teams at the highest level of that association's league system.


 * {| class="wikitable"

!Number of teams !CCL bids !CC bids !Total bids
 * align=center|1 or 2
 * rowspan=3 align=center|1
 * align=center|0
 * align=center|1
 * align=center|3 or 4
 * align=center|1
 * align=center|2
 * align=center|5
 * align=center|2
 * align=center|3
 * align=center|6 or 7
 * rowspan=2 align=center|max of 2
 * align=center|max of 3
 * align=center|4
 * align=center|8
 * rowspan=4 align=center|3
 * align=center|max of 5
 * align=center|9 to 11
 * align=center|max of 3
 * align=center|max of 6
 * align=center|12 to 14
 * align=center|max of 4
 * align=center|max of 7
 * align=center|15 or more
 * align=center|max of 5
 * align=center|max of 8
 * colspan=4 align=center|Note: Actual number of bids depends on an association's ranking.
 * }
 * align=center|max of 4
 * align=center|max of 7
 * align=center|15 or more
 * align=center|max of 5
 * align=center|max of 8
 * colspan=4 align=center|Note: Actual number of bids depends on an association's ranking.
 * }
 * colspan=4 align=center|Note: Actual number of bids depends on an association's ranking.
 * }

Qualification
The CONCACAF SuperLiga will commence with a double round-robin group stage of 48 teams, which is preceded by three qualification rounds for teams that do not receive direct entry to the tournament proper.

Three teams will qualify for the tournament from each member association, except for Canada who has one qualifier (a spot which was vacated) but were also eligible for the American spots in the tournament. CONCACAF club coefficients, generated by the results of clubs representing each association during the previous five Champions League seasons, will determine the number of qualification rounds the association's teams must compete in. Teams will qualify based on the results of tournaments completed between July 2014 and June 2015 (some exceptions may be made for some associations if their competitions are completed later, so long as they are completed before teams from that association enter the tournament). Guyana, Saint Lucia, and the British Virgin Islands will not complete any major league competitions during this time (though Guyana conducted a major cup competition), so the results of their most recently completed league competitions will be used instead. The Bahamas season was not completed, and the standings when the season was cancelled were used (calculated as a per game average).

Four associations will receive an additional bid based on fair play.

Twenty-eight teams eliminated from the 2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League are transferred to the CONCACAF SuperLiga.

Distribution
The table below shows the default access list.

For associations without a domestic cup, the three selections will be given to the three best teams that have not qualified for the Champions League, and the teams will be seeded based on their performance during the domestic season. Seeding methods vary between associations, due to different season formats.

For associations that have a domestic cup, the selections will be as follows:
 * First selection: Domestic cup winner
 * Second selection: Best team not yet qualified for Champions League or SuperLiga
 * Third selection: Second best team not yet qualified for Champions League or SuperLiga (or second domestic cup winner, for Mexico)

Redistribution rules
A CONCACAF SuperLiga place is vacated when a team qualifies for both the Champions League and the SuperLiga, or qualifies for the SuperLiga by more than one method. When a place is vacated, it is redistributed within the national association by the following rules:
 * When the domestic cup winners (considered as the "highest-placed" qualifier within the national association with the latest starting round) also qualify for the Champions League, their SuperLiga place is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for continental competitions qualify for the SuperLiga, with the SuperLiga qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place".
 * When the domestic cup winners also qualify for the SuperLiga through league position, their place through the league position is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for continental competitions qualify for the SuperLiga, with the SuperLiga qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place" if possible.
 * There are special rules for spots vacated by Canadian teams, as Canadian teams don't earn spots based on league performance (unless they earn an American spot). These rules are noted above.
 * A Fair Play place is taken by the highest-ranked team in the domestic Fair Play rankings which have not yet qualified for continental competitions.

Association team allocation
Each association (except Canada) gets 3 direct berths in the 2015–16 CONCACAF SuperLiga. Only one team (the winner of the Canadian Championship) qualifies from Canada. In addition to this, 4 berths are awarded based on the Fair Play rankings and 30 teams drop down to this tournament upon elimination from the 2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League for a total of 149 teams.

Association ranking (2015–16)
Apart from the 3 berths (1 for Canada) granted automatically, associations may have additional teams participating in the SuperLiga, as noted below:
 * (FP) – Additional berth via Fair Play ranking (Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, French Guiana, Martinique)
 * (CCL) – Additional teams transferred from the Champions League

Teams
League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses.

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
 * CW: Cup winners
 * 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position
 * FP: Fair Play
 * CCL: Transferred from the Champions League
 * GS: Third-placed teams from the group stage
 * PO: Losers from the play-off round
 * 2Q: Losers from the second qualifying round

Notably seven teams that did not play in their national top-division took part in the competition, including all three direct entrants from Puerto Rico: Brazilian Soccer Academy, Spartans, and Isabela, none of whom participated in the Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Puerto Rico in 2015. Independiente were relegated to the second division for finishing last on aggregate in the Liga Panameña de Fútbol, but still qualified for the SuperLiga as runners-up of the 2015 LPF Torneo Clausura. Don Bosco Jarabacoa self-relegated to the Dominican Republic's second division, choosing to remain an amateur club after the first division became fully professional. Western Tigers were not chosen to be a member of the inaugural GFF Elite League. Kourou were relegated for not maintaining enough youth teams, despite finishing 4th. Two other teams qualified without being a member of their national top-division, but have since moved to the top-division: Slingerz and Nishan 42.

Fair Play Rankings
The list below shows the top 4 associations in the CONCACAF Fair Play Rankings, who each received an extra bid in the CONCACAF SuperLiga. The teams nominated for these four bids were the best teams in each associations' Fair Play leagues that had not already qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League or CONCACAF SuperLiga.

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 * -valign=top

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

Qualifying rounds
In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams are divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their CONCACAF club coefficients, and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other.

First qualifying round
The draw for the first qualifying round was held on 22 June 2015. The first legs were played on 16 and 20 July, and the second legs were played on 23 July 2015.

A total of 78 teams play in the first qualifying round.


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Second qualifying round
The draw for the second qualifying round was held on 17 July 2015. The first legs were played on 30 July, and the second legs were played on 6 August 2015.

A total of 64 teams play in the second qualifying round: 25 teams which enter in this round, and the 39 winners of the first qualifying round.


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Play-off round
The draw for the play-off round was held on 7 August 2015. The first legs will be played on 20 August, and the second legs will be played on 27 August 2015.

A total of 44 teams play in the play-off round: the 32 winners of the second qualifying round, and the 12 losers of the 2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League second qualifying round.


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Group stage
The draw for the group stage was held on 28 August 2015. The 48 teams were allocated into four pots based on their CONCACAF club coefficients. The teams were drawn into twelve groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.

In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The matchdays are 17 September, 1 October, 22 October, 5 November, 26 November, and 10 December 2015. The group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 32, where they are joined by the eight third-placed teams of the 2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League group stage.

A total of 48 teams play in the group stage: 16 teams which enter in this stage, the 22 winners of the play-off round, and the 10 losers of the 2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League play-off round.

Knockout phase
In the knockout phase, teams play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:
 * In the draw for the round of 32, the twelve group winners and the four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage with the better group records are seeded, and the twelve group runners-up and the other four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage are unseeded. The seeded teams are drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association cannot be drawn against each other.
 * In the draws for the round of 16 onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association could have been drawn against each other.
 * If any association sent two teams to the semifinals, those teams were automatically paired with each other and the draw was used to determine which team hosts the second leg of each semifinal match-up. For this reason, Puebla and Toluca were automatically paired against each other in the semifinals.

Round of 32
The draw for the round of 32 was held on 14 December 2015. The first legs were played on 18 February 2016, and the second legs were played on 25 February 2016.


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Round of 16
The draw for the round of 32 was held on 26 February 2016. The first legs were played on 10 March, and the second legs were played on 17 March 2016.


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Quarter-finals
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 18 March 2016. The first legs were played on 7 April, and the second legs were played on 14 April 2016.


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Semi-finals
The draw for the semi-finals and final was held on 15 April 2016. The first legs were played on 28 April, and the second legs were played on 5 May 2016.


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Final
The first leg of the final was played on 18 May, and the second leg was played on 25 May 2016.


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