User:Quidster4040/sandbox/2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League

The 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League will be the 52nd season of North America's premier club football tournament organized by CONCACAF, and the 9th season since it was renamed from the CONCACAF Champions' Cup to the CONCACAF Champions League.

On 30 June 2015, it was announced that the 2017 CONCACAF Champions League Final will be played at the BMO Field in Toronto, Canada.

Association team allocation
A total of 77, 78 or 79 teams from 53 of the 54 UEFA member associations are expected to participate in the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League (the exception being Liechtenstein, which does not organise a domestic league). The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
 * Associations 1–3 each have four teams qualify.
 * Associations 4–6 each have three teams qualify.
 * Associations 7–15 each have two teams qualify.
 * Associations 16–54 (except Liechtenstein) each have one team qualify.
 * The winners of the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League and 2015–16 UEFA Europa League are each given an additional entry if they do not qualify for the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league. Because a maximum of five teams from one association can enter the Champions League, if both the Champions League title holders and the Europa League title holders are from the same top three ranked association and finish outside the top four of their domestic league, the fourth-placed team of their association will be moved to the Europa League.

Association ranking
For the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2015 CONCACAF country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in North American competitions from 2010–11 to 2014–15.

Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
 * (CL) – Additional berth for Champions League title holders
 * (SL) – Additional berth for SuperLiga title holders

Distribution
The table below shows the default access list.

The access list above is provisional, as changes will be made depending on whether the Champions League and Europa League title holders qualify for the tournament via their domestic leagues. The Champions League title holders always enter directly into the group stage. The Europa League title holders also enter directly into the group stage if either they or the Champions League title holders qualify for the group stage via their domestic leagues (if both teams qualify for the group stage via their domestic leagues, the champions of association 13 enter directly into the group stage). Otherwise, the Europa League title holders enter directly the play-off round, with the route they enter depending 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 1–12 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 13–54 in the access list.

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 20 teams. UEFA has published a detailed document outlining several possible qualification scenarios, which are also covered in the regulations (Article 3.07).

Teams
Main article: 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League qualifying phase

League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses (CL: Champions League title holders; SL: SuperLiga title holders).

Round and draw dates
The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held at the CONCACAF headquarters in Miami, United States, unless stated otherwise).

Matches in the qualifying, play-off, and knockout rounds may also be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays instead of the regular Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts.

Qualifying rounds

 * Main article: 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League qualifying phase and play-off round

In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2015 CONCACAF club coefficients, and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.

First qualifying round
The first legs were played on 28 June and 29 June, and the second legs were played on 5 and 6 July 2015. 


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Second qualifying round

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Third qualifying round
The first legs will be played on 26 and 27 July, and the second legs will be played on 4 and 5 August 2016. 

!colspan=6|Champions Route

!colspan=6|League Route


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Play-off round

 * Main article: 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League play-off round

The first legs will be played 16–18 August, and the second legs will be played on 23–25 August 2016.

!colspan=6|Champions Route

!colspan=6|League Route


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Group stage

 * Main page: 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League group stage

The draw for the group stage will be held on 25 August 2016, at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami, United States. The 32 teams are drawn into eight groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams are seeded into four pots based on the following principles (introduced starting 2015–16 season):
 * Pot 1 contains the title holders and the champions of the top seven associations based on their 2015 CONCACAF country coefficients. If the title holders are one of the champions of the top seven associations, the champions of the association ranked eighth are also seeded into Pot 1.
 * Pot 2, 3 and 4 contain the remaining teams, seeded 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 16, while the third-placed teams enter the 2016–17 CONCACAF SuperLiga round of 32. The matchdays are 13–14 September, 27–28 September, 18–19 October, 1–2 November, 22–23 November, and 6–7 December 2016.

The youth teams of the clubs that qualify for the group stage also play in the 2016–17 CONCACAF Youth League on the same matchdays, where they compete in the CONCACAF Champions League Path (the youth domestic champions of the top 32 associations compete in a separate Domestic Champions Path until the knockout phase).

A total of 16 national associations are represented in the group stage. Lyford Cay and Square United will make their debut appearances in the group stage.

Knockout phase

 * Main page: 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League knockout phase

In the knockout phase, teams 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 are seeded, and the eight group runners-up 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 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



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Quarterfinals
The draw was held on 3 March 2017. The first legs were played on 14 and 15 March, and the second legs were played on 4 and 5 April 2017. 


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Semifinals
The draw was held on 7 April 2017. The first legs were played on 18 and 19 April, and the second legs were played on 25 and 26 April 2017. 


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Final

 * Main article: 2017 CONCACAF Champions League Final

The final was played on 17 May 2017 at BMO Field in Toronto, Canada. The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the semi-final draw.