User:Bmf 051/sandbox/2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League

The CONCACAF Champions League is 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 consist of a qualification round and a play-off round, with 10 surviving teams entering the group stage, joining 22 teams that qualify automatically. The 32 teams are drawn into eight groups of four teams and play each other in a double round-robin system. The eight group winners and eight runners-up proceed to the knockout phase that culminates with the two-legged final.

Pachuca were the defending champions, but they were eliminated in the round of 16 by the Seattle Sounders on away goals.

Herediano won the competition, defeating América 5–2 on aggregate in the final for their third championship in four years.

Format changes
See main article.

Qualification
The CONCACAF Champions League will 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 the CONCACAF country coefficients. 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 associations league system. Teams will qualify based on the results of tournaments completed between July 2016 and June 2017 (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).

In addition to the previous year's champion, 21 teams qualify directly to the group stage of the tournament from associations ranked 1 through 9. Five of the remaining 10 qualifying places are granted to the winners of a three round qualifying tournament between the remaining 30 national champions, within which those champions from associations with higher coefficients receive byes to the second qualifying round. The other five places are granted to the winners of a two round play-off round between the 12 clubs from associations ranked 1 through 13 (excluding Canada), which have qualified based upon finishing second, third, fourth, or fifth in their respective national league.

The winner of the previous year's SuperLiga will enter in play-off round if they do not qualify for the group stage via their domestic performance. The stream the enter will depend on the rank the Champions League title holder's association.

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 (in the semifinals, two teams from the same association must be paired with each other). 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
The table below shows the default access list. Changes will need to be made in the following cases: The final access list will then be adjusted accordingly, with teams entering either earlier or later into the competition in order to ensure that the group stage consists of 32 teams and the play-off round consists of 10 teams per route. None of these changes may cause a league champion to enter earlier than a non-champion from the same association (other than the Champions League and SuperLiga title holders).
 * If both the Champions League title holders and the SuperLiga title holders have qualified for the group stage through domestic performance, the champions of association 10 are moved from the second qualifying round to the play-off round, and the champions of associations 19 and 20 are moved from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.
 * If the Champions League title holders have qualified for the group stage through domestic performance while the SuperLiga title holders have not, the SuperLiga title holders enter the group stage through the berth vacated by the Champions League title holders. If the SuperLiga title holders have qualified for any of the qualifying rounds or play-off round through domestic performance, their berth is vacated, and teams of the highest-ranked associations are moved to a later round accordingly.
 * If the Champions League title holders have not qualified for the group stage through domestic performance, there are two sets of changes that may need to be made. If the Champions League title holders have qualified for any of the qualifying rounds or play-off round through domestic performance, their berth is vacated, and teams of the highest-ranked associations are moved to a later round accordingly. Furthermore, if the SuperLiga title holders have not qualified for the group stage through domestic performance, they enter the play-off round, where the section (Champions Route or League Route) depends on the Champions League title holders:
 * League Route: If the Champions League title holders have qualified for any round of the League Route, or have not qualified for the tournament via their domestic league and are from the associations 1–9 in the access list.
 * Champions Route: If the Champions League title holders have qualified for any round of the Champions Route, or have not qualified for the tournament via their domestic league and are from the associations 10–40 in the access list.

Guatemala was passed by Honduras for fourth-place in the country coefficients. This would ordinarily increase the number of teams from Honduras from 3 to 4, and reduce Guatemala's entrants from 4 to 3. However, since Honduras only has 10 teams in its top division, they are limited to a maximum of 3 teams in the Champions League. So their fourth berth (in the play-off round) is reallocated to Guatemala. The net result compared to last season is Honduras's third berth is moved to the group stage and Guatemala's third berth is moved to the play-off round. Furthermore, due to the suspension of Guatemala by FIFA and their teams' subsequent expulsion from international competitions, and due to defending champions Pachuca being moved from the play-off round to the group stage, the following changes were made to the default access list:
 * The champions of associations 10–13 (Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Guyana, and Antigua and Barbuda) were moved from the second qualifying round to the group stage.
 * The champions of associations 18–25 (Jamaica, Belize, Bermuda, Aruba, Suriname, Saint Lucia, Dominica, and U.S. Virgin Islands) were moved from first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.
 * The runners-up of associations 10 and 11 (Puerto Rico and Nicaragua) were moved from the second qualifying round to the play-off round.
 * The third-place team from association 4 (Honduras) and runners-up of association 6 (Panama) was moved from the group stage to the play-off round.

Note that some of these teams may be moved back if the SuperLiga title holders are granted a berth in the play-off round.

Association team allocation
A total of 61 teams from 40 of the 41 CONCACAF member associations are expected to participate in the 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League. Guatemala's teams were expelled from the tournament this season due to their suspension by FIFA. Montserrat will send a team to the competition for the first time (despite not conducting a domestic league since 2004, their only active club was extended an invitation). 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 has four teams qualify.
 * Associations 5 and 6 have three teams qualify.
 * Associations 8–13 each have two teams qualify.
 * Association 7 (Canada), and 14–41 each have one team qualify.
 * Association 4 (Guatemala) does not have any teams qualify.

Association ranking (2017–18)
For the 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their CONCACAF country coefficient (which are calculated using the same formula as UEFA country coefficients). These coefficients take into account their performance in the CONCACAF Champions League from 2012–13 to 2016–17. Associations with the same coefficient are ranked based on the previous year's points earned.

Teams
League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses (TH: Champions League title holders; SL: SuperLiga title holders; Inv.: Invited team from country without recent domestic league season).

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 2017 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 19 June 2017. The first legs were held on 11 and 12 July, and the second legs were played on 18 and 19 July 2017.


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Second qualifying round
The draw for the second qualifying round was held on 14 July 2017. The first legs were played on 25 and 26 July, and the second legs were played on 1 and 2 August 2017.

The second qualifying round is split into two separate sections: the Champions Route (for league champions) and the League Route (for league non-champions). The losing teams in both sections enter the 2017–18 CONCACAF SuperLiga play-off round.

!colspan=6|Champions Route

!colspan=6|League Route


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Play-off round
The draw for the play-off round was held on 4 August 2017. The first legs were played on 15 and 16 August, and the second legs were played on 22 and 23 August 2017.

The play-off round is split into two separate sections: the Champions Route (for league champions) and the League Route (for league non-champions). The losing teams in both sections enter the 2017–18 CONCACAF SuperLiga group stage.

!colspan=6|Champions Route

!colspan=6|League Route


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Group stage
The draw for the group stage was held on 24 August 2017.

The 32 teams were drawn into eight 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 the following principles (introduced starting 2015–16 season):
 * Pot 1 contained the title holders and the champions of the top seven associations based on their 2017 CONCACAF country coefficients. Since Guatemala was suspended by FIFA, the champions of the eighth ranked association (El Salvador) were placed in pot 1 instead.
 * Pot 2, 3 and 4 contained the remaining teams, seeded based on their 2017 CONCACAF club coefficients.

In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 16, while the third-placed teams entered the 2017–18 CONCACAF SuperLiga round of 32.

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 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 are no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association can be drawn against each other.
 * If any association sends two teams to the semifinals, those teams will automatically be paired with each other and the draw will only be used to determine which team hosts the second leg of each semifinal match-up.

Round of 16
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 11 December 2017. The first legs were played on 13, 14, 20 and 21 February, and the second legs were played on 6, 7, 13 and 14 March 2018.

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Quarter-finals
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 16 March 2018. The first legs were played on 3 and 4 April, and the second legs were played on 10 and 11 April 2018.


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Semi-finals
The draw for the semi-finals was held on 13 April 2018. The first legs were played on 24 and 25 April, and the second legs were played on 1 and 2 May 2018.


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Final
The draw for the final was held after the semi-final draw. The first leg was played 19 May, and the second leg was played 26 May 2018.


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