User:Quidster4040/sandbox/2020–21 CONCACAF Champions League

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The 2020–21 CONCACAF Champions League was the 56th season of North Americas's premier club football tournament organised by CONCACAF, and the 13th season since it was renamed from the CONCACAF Champions' Cup to the CONCACAF Champions League.

The winners of the 2020–21 CONCACAF Champions League qualified as the CONCACAF representative at the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup, and also earn the right to play against the winners of the 2020–21 CONCACAF SuperLiga in the 2021 CONCACAF Super Cup.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the subsequent delays to the 2019–20 CONCACAF Champions League, the 2020–21 qualification began in August 2020, and composed of single-leg fixtures on a neutral site near Dallas, Texas, United States.

The 2021 Champions League Final will be held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, United States on 16 May 2021, making it the first Champions League final in Las Vegas since 2000.

Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
 * 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.: League position
 * LC: League Cup/League Playoffs winners
 * AP-1: Apertura winner
 * CL-1: Clausura winner
 * AP-2: Apertura runner-up
 * CL-2: Clausura runner-up
 * TH: Title holders
 * SL: 2019–20 CONCACAF SuperLiga winners

Round and draw dates
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, on 13 April 2020, CONCACAF announced that the qualifying rounds of the Champions League would be single legs at a neutral quarantined location to minimize cross-contamination. On 20 April 2020 it was announced that the qualifying matches would be held at the soccer complex adjacent Toyota Stadium in Frisco, United States (near Dallas). Teams would report to the facility two weeks ahead of qualification matches and stay on the premises. All matches through qualifying were to be played behind closed doors. The group stage format is to be determined at a later time. The knockout round format for now is to retain its normal procedures.

Qualifying rounds

 * Main article: 2020–21 CONCACAF Champions League qualifying phase and play-off round

Preliminary round
The preliminary round was scheduled for 3 August 2020, but was cancelled on 14 July 2020 when Port City was on the only preliminary round club not to withdraw from the tournament.

First qualifying round
First qualifying round matches were held 4–6 August 2020. Teams with the highest coefficent by country earned byes to the second qualifying round.


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Second qualifying round
Second qualifying round matches were held on 9 and 10 August 2020. 


 * +Champions Path


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 * +League Path


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Third qualifying round
Third qualifying round matches were held on 13 and 14 August 2020. 


 * +Champions Path


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 * +League Path


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Play-off round
Play-off round matches were held on 16 and 17 August 2020. 


 * +Champions Path


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 * +League Path


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Group stage

 * ''Main article: 2020–21 CONCACAF Champions League group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 2 October 2020, 13:00 Eastern Time, at the Apollo Theater in New York City. The 32 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 2019 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 knockout phase. The third placed finishers advanced to the 2020–21 CONCACAF SuperLiga knockout phase, while the fourth place finishers advanced to the 2020–21 CONCACAF Confederations League knockout phase.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in North America, all group stage matches were moved to neutral venues with matches played behind closed doors. There were three sites hosting two matches each for the total of six matches. Consequently, the match days for the group stage were 27 October 2020, 3 November 2020, 2 December 2020, 6 December 2020, 5 January 2021, and 13 January 2021.

A total of 14 national associations were represented in the group stage. Blainville, Philadelphia Union, and Arcahaie made their debut appearances in the group stage.

Knockout stage

 * ''Main article: 2020–21 CONCACAF Champions League knockout stage

Round of 16
The first legs were played on 6 and 7 April, and the second legs were played on 13 and 14 April 2021. 


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Quarterfinals
The first legs were played on 27 and 28 April, and the second legs were played on 4 and 5 May 2021. 


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Semifinals
The first legs were played on 18 and 19 May, and the second legs were played on 25 and 26 May 2021. 


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