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

The 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League group stage will begin on 12 September and end on 6 December 2017. A total of 32 teams compete in the group stage to decide the 16 places in the knockout phase of the 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League.

Draw
The draw for the group stage will be held on 24 August 2017, 18:00 EST, at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

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:
 * Pot 1 contains the title holders and the champions of the top seven associations based on their 2016 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 2017 club coefficients.

The draw is controlled for teams from the same association in order to split the teams evenly into the two sets of four groups (A–D, E–H) for maximum television coverage. On each matchday, one set of four groups play their matches on Tuesday, while the other set of four groups play their matches on Wednesday, with the two sets of groups alternating between each matchday.

The fixtures are decided after the draw, using a computer draw not shown to public, with the following match sequence (Regulations Article 16.02):

Note: Positions for scheduling do not use the seeding pots, e.g., Team 1 is not necessarily the team from Pot 1 in the draw.

There are certain scheduling restrictions: for example, teams from the same city (e.g., Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid) in general do not play at home on the same matchday (UEFA tries to avoid teams from the same city playing at home on the same day or on consecutive days, due to logistics and crowd control), and teams in certain countries (e.g., Russia) do not play at home on the last matchday (due to cold weather and simultaneous kick-off times).

Teams
Below are the participating teams (with their 2017 club coefficients), grouped by their seeding pot. They include 22 teams which enter in this stage, and the 10 winners of the play-off round (5 in Champions Route, 5 in League Route).


 * Notes

Format
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 Europa League round of 32.

Tiebreakers
 Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 17.01):
 * 1) Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
 * 2) Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
 * 3) Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
 * 4) Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
 * 5) If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
 * 6) Goal difference in all group matches;
 * 7) Goals scored in all group matches;
 * 8) Away goals scored in all group matches;
 * 9) Wins in all group matches;
 * 10) Away wins in all group matches;
 * 11) Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
 * 12) UEFA club coefficient.

Groups
The matchdays are 12–13 September, 26–27 September, 17–18 October, 31 October – 1 November, 21–22 November, and 5–6 December 2017. The match kickoff times are 20:45 EST/EDT in general, except for certain matches for geographical reasons.

Times up to 28 October 2017 (matchdays 1–3) are CEST (UTC+2), thereafter (matchdays 4–6) times are CET (UTC+1).