User:Quidster4040/sandbox/2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League

The 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League will be the 53rd season of North Americas's premier club football tournament organised by CONCACAF, and the 10th season since it was renamed from the CONCACAF Champions' Cup to the CONCACAF Champions League.

The winners of the 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League will qualify as the CONCACAF representative at the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, and also earn the right to play against the winners of the 2017–18 CONCACAF SuperLiga in the 2018 CONCACAF Super Cup.

Association ranking
For the 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2017 CONCACAF country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in North American competitions from 2012–13 to 2016–17.

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 participants

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: 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.
 * 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.

Teams

 * Notes

Qualifying rounds

 * Main article: 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League qualifying phase

In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams are divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2017 UEFA 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 first legs were played on 27–28 June 2017 and the second legs were played on 4–5 July 2017. 


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Second qualifying round
The first legs were played on 11 and 12 July, and the second legs were played on 18 and 19 July 2017. 

!colspan="5"|Champions Route

!colspan="5"|League Route


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Third qualifying round
The first legs were played on 25 and 26 July, and the second legs were played on 1 and 2 August 2017. 

!colspan="5"|Champions Route

!colspan="5"|League Route


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Play-off round
 The first legs were played on 15 and 16 August, and the second legs will be played on 22 and 23 August 2017.

!colspan=6|Champions Route

!colspan=6|League Route


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Group stage

 * Main page: 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League group stage

The draw for the group stage was be held on 24 August 2017, 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 2017–18 CONCACAF SuperLiga round of 32. The matchdays are 14 September, 28 September, 19 October, 2 November, 23 November, and 7 December 2017.

Knockout phase

 * ''Main article: 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League 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 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.

Round of 16
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 11 December 2017, 12:00 EST, at the CONCACAF headquarters in New York City, United States.  The first legs were played on 27–28 February, and the second legs were played on 6–7 March 2018.


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Quarter-finals
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 9 March 2018, 12:00 EST, at the CONCACAF headquarters in New York City, United States.  The first legs will be played on 20 and 21 March, and the second legs will be played on 27 and 28 March 2018.


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Semi-finals
The draw for the semi-finals was held on 30 March 2018, 12:00 EDT, at the CONCACAF headquarters in New York City, United States.

The first legs will be played on 17 and 18 April, and the second legs will be played on 24 and 25 April 2018.


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Final

 * Main article: 2018 CONCACAF Champions League Final

The 2018 CONCACAF Champions League Final was played at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati on 16 May 2018.