User:Bmf 051/sandbox/2016–17 CONCACAF SuperLiga

The CONCACAF SuperLiga was a proposed annual continental club football competition. The tournament would have been a secondary tournament to an expanded version of the CONCACAF Champions League. It would have served 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 have consisted of two qualification rounds and a play-off round, with 22 surviving teams entering the group stage, joining 16 teams that qualified automatically and 10 losers from the play-off round of the CONCACAF Champions League. The 48 teams were drawn into twelve groups of four teams and played each other in a double round-robin system. The twelve group winners and twelve runners-up proceeded 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.

Toluca won the previous tournament. They entered the 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League group stage as SuperLiga title holders, winning their group and advancing to the knockout phase. Thus, they did not have an opportunity to defend their SuperLiga title.

Guadalajara won the tournament, drawing León 4–4 on aggregate in the final, and winning 4–3 on away goals.

Format changes
Here is a list of changes I've made from the previous tournament:
 * The 4 spots in the first qualifying round awarded for Fair Play have been eliminated.
 * A spot in the group stage has been reserved for the winners of the 2016 CFU Club Championship. Previously, the CFU champions were guaranteed a spot in the group stage if they did not qualify for the Champions League, but they took a spot held by a team that would ordinarily enter at the group stage, moving the latter team to the second qualifying round.
 * Teams from Sint Maarten will enter the tournament for the first time.
 * The second selection from association 8 will move from the group stage to the second qualifying round.

Furthermore, for this tournament only, the following changes were made to the default access list.
 * The number of teams from Puerto Rico was reduced to 2 (from 3). Due to only having 6 teams in their top league, Puerto Rico is only eligible to enter 4 teams total into the Champions League and SuperLiga. Since Puerto Rico earned two bids in the Champions League based on their country coefficient, they are only eligible for two bids in the SuperLiga.
 * The number of teams from Anguilla was reduced to 2 (from 3). Due to only having 5 teams in their top league, Anguilla is only eligible to enter 2 teams in the SuperLiga.
 * As a result of the above two changes, and because the CFU champions qualified for the Champions League, the following changes were made for this tournament only:
 * The first selection from association 10 (Trinidad and Tobago) was moved from the second qualifying round to the group stage.
 * The first selections from associations 19 through 23 (Bermuda, Belize, Saint Lucia, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Aruba) were moved from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.

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 but are also eligible for the American spots in the tournament, and Puerto Rico and Anguilla who both have two qualifiers. 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 2015 and June 2016 (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).

Twenty-eight teams eliminated from the 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League are transferred to the CONCACAF SuperLiga.

Distribution
The table below shows the access list for the tournament.

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.
 * If a Canadian team earns an American berth, they will vacate the American berth and receive a supplemental berth instead. The American berth will go to the next best American team.

Association ranking (2016–17)
For the 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their CONCACAF country coefficients. These coefficients take into account their performance in the CONCACAF Champions League from 2011–12 to 2015–16. Associations with the same coefficient are ranked based on points earned in the most recent tournament.

Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
 * (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
 * CW1: 2016 Supercopa MX winners
 * CW2: 2016 Supercopa MX runners-up
 * 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position
 * 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 UCSB qualified as a member of Guadeloupe's second division, though they were promoted to the first division prior to this tournament.

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 2016 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 20 June 2016. The first legs were played on 14 July, and the second legs were played on 21 July 2016.


 * }

Second qualifying round
The draw for the second qualifying round was held on 15 July 2016. The first legs were played on 28 July, and the second legs were played on 4 August 2016.


 * }

Play-off round
The draw for the play-off round was held on 5 August 2016. The first legs were played on 18 August, and the second legs were played on 25 August 2016.


 * }

Group stage
The draw for the group stage was held on 26 August 2016.

The 48 teams were drawn into twelve groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots based on their 2016 CONCACAF club coefficients.

In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 32, where they are joined by the eight third-placed teams of the 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League group stage.

Knockout phase
In the knockout phase, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis. The mechanism of the draws for each round was 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 were seeded, and the twelve group runners-up and the other four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage 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 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 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 32
The draw for the round of 32 was held on 12 December 2016. The first legs were played on 16 February, and the second legs were played on 23 February 2017.

After the draw, on 9 January 2017, Slingerz and Alpha United were expelled from the SuperLiga for not being in good standing with the Guyana Football Federation. They were replaced in their ties by Defence Force and Montego Bay United, the third-placed teams in their respective groups.


 * }

Round of 16
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 24 February 2017. The first legs were played on 9 March, and the second legs were played on 16 March 2017.


 * }

Quarter-finals
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 17 March 2017. The first legs were played on 13 April, and the second legs were played on 20 April 2017.


 * }

Semi-finals
The draw for the semi-finals was held on 21 April 2017. The first legs were played on 4 May, and the second legs were played on 11 May 2017.


 * }

Final
The first leg of the final was played on 24 May 2017 and the second leg was played on 31 May 2017. The draw was held after the semi-final draw.


 * }