User:Bmf 051/sandbox/2017–18 CONCACAF SuperLiga

The CONCACAF SuperLiga is 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.

Guadalajara won the previous tournament. They entered the 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League group stage as the winners of the Clausura 2017 Liga MX, and advanced to the knockout phase after finishing runners-up in their group. Thus, they will not have an opportunity to defend their SuperLiga title.

Sporting Kansas City won the tournament, drawing Toluca 3–3 on aggregate in the final, and winning 3–0 on away goals, becoming the first American team and the first non-Mexican team to win the tournament.

Format changes
The qualification procedure was changed for some associations (namely Curaçao, Aruba, Turks and Caicos Islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Bonaire). Each of these associations use a format involving multiple play-off rounds, with team's potentially being eliminated from advancing to a further round with match(es) still left to play. Previously, each of these associations' leagues ranked the play-off champions and runners-up as the top two teams in the league, followed by the remaining teams based on regular season record. This could potentially result in a situation where a team (having already been eliminated in the play-offs) could benefit from not winning a game (if losing or drawing could prevent another team that finished lower in the regular season standings from advancing in the play-offs). Such a situation occured with Curaçao last season, where Jong Holland could have eliminated themselves from SuperLiga contention by winning their final play-off match, giving incentive to lose or draw that match (the match ultimately ended in a draw). In the future, these associations will rank their teams entirely based on play-off performance (aside from berths awarded for winning domestic cup tournaments).

This will also affect qualification for Costa Rica, who adopted a similar format beginning with the 2016–17 season, albeit incorporating it into an Invierno and Verano system. For this league, teams are ranked based on play-off performance with Verano finish taking precedence (i.e. the Verano champions are ranked 1st, the Invierno champions are 2nd, the Verano runners-up are 3rd, etc.). Teams that did not qualify for the play-offs are then ranked based on aggregate record. An exception to this is that, if the Invierno champions finish with the best aggregate record in the league, they are ranked 1st automatically since they will not have an incentive to lose a match in the Verano. These changes should eliminate any circumstance where a team may benefit from losing a play-off match by placing precedence on performing better in the second-half play-offs. Nicaragua adopted the same format, but only for the Apertura, so their qualification method will not change.

Furthermore, the following changes were made to the default access list.
 * The number of teams from Puerto Rico was increased to 3 (from 2), due to the Puerto Rico Soccer League becoming the country's de facto first division, with 11 clubs taking part compared to 6 in the last season of the Liga Nacional de Puerto Rico.
 * The number of teams from Guyana was reduced to 2 (from 3). Due to only having 6 teams in their top league, Guyana is only eligible to enter 4 teams total into the Champions League and SuperLiga. Since Guyana earned two berths in the Champions League based on their country coefficient, they are only eligible for two berths in the SuperLiga.
 * The number of teams from Anguilla was increased to 3 (from 2), due to this country's league expanding from 5 teams to 9.

The following additional changes were made due to the expulsion of Guatemala's teams due to their suspension by FIFA and as a result of the 2017 CFU Club Championship winners moving from the second qualifying round to the group stage:
 * The first selections from associations 10 and 11 (Puerto Rico and Nicaragua) were moved from the second qualifying round to the group stage.
 * The first selections from associations 19–30 except the Dominican Republic (Belize, Bermuda, Aruba, Suriname, Saint Lucia, Dominica, U.S. Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Cuba, Bahamas, and Barbados) were moved from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round. The Dominican Republic's first selection was Cibao, who were moved to the group stage as the 2017 CFU Club Championship winners.
 * One fewer team will transfer from the Champions League second qualifying round to the SuperLiga play-off round (11 instead of 12).

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 Anguilla who has two qualifiers. Club coefficients, which are derived using the same formula as UEFA league coefficients and are generated by the results of clubs representing each association during the previous five Champions League and SuperLiga 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 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).

Twenty-eight teams eliminated from the 2017–18 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 (2017–18)
For the 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their CONCACAF country coefficients (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 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
 * 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position
 * CFU: CFU Club Championship title holders
 * 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 Samaritaine qualified as a member of Martinque's second division, though they were promoted to the first division prior to this tournament. Also, Puerto Rico FC are not a member of the Puerto Rican league system at all, playing in the United States' second division league, the North American Soccer League.

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 13 and 19 July, and the second legs were played on 20 and 22 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 27 July, and the second legs were played on 3 August 2017.


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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 17 August, and the second legs were played on 24 August 2017.


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Group stage
The draw for the group stage was held on 25 August 2017.

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 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 32, joining the third-placed teams from the 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League group stage.

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 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 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 32
The draw for the round of 32 was held on 11 December 2017. The first legs were played on 15 February, and the second legs were played on 22 February 2018.

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Round of 16
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 23 February 2018. The first legs were played on 8 March, and the second legs were played on 15 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 5 April, and the second legs were played on 12 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 26 April, and the second legs were played on 3 May 2018.


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Final
The draw the final was held after the semi-final draw. The first leg was played 16 May, and the second leg was played 23 May 2018.


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