CONCACAF Champions League Officially Launched

[NEColourULike]

CONCACAF Champions League Officially Launched

28.1.08 - CONCACAF announced today the official launch of the new continental club championship, the CONCACAF Champions League which will commence in August 2008. The CONCACAF Champions League will replace the Champions’ Cup which will cease to exist after the 2008 edition.

The CONCACAF Champions League will see a Confederation record number of 24 teams from all sectors of the CONCACAF region participating. The preliminary round begins in August 2008 with the first CONCACAF Champions League winner to be crowned in late April 2009.

The CONCACAF Champions League will feature four teams from Mexico and USA; three Caribbean sides; two clubs each from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama; and one representative coming from Canada, Belize, and Nicaragua.

Eight clubs (two Mexican, two USA, one each from Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador) will be seeded and progress directly to the first round of the CONCACAF Champions League, while the Caribbean slots have been increased to three teams for this event.

The remaining 16 teams will be paired in eight home-and-away preliminary match-ups taking place from 26-28 August and 2-4 September.

The preliminary round winners will join the other eight seeded teams in the group stage that consists of four groups of four. All the teams in each group will play each other in a round-robin system during six match dates (three home games, three away games) from 16 September – 30 October.

The top two clubs from each group will advance to the knock out phase playing home-and-away elimination. The quarterfinals commence in February 2009; semifinals begin in March; and the Finals will take place in late April.

The CONCACAF Champions League winner will qualify as the CONCACAF’s representative to the 2009 edition of the FIFA Club World Cup.

2008-09 CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Calendar of Events
2008
End July: All qualification completed, draw for preliminary round
26-28 August: Preliminary Round, First-legs
2-4 September: Preliminary Round, Second-legs
Early September: Group Stage Schedule Announced
16-18 September: Group Stage – Match Day 1
23-25 September: Group Stage – Match Day 2
30 September – 2 October: Group Stage – Match Day 3
7-9 October: Group Stage – Match Day 4
21-23 October: Group Stage – Match Day 5
28-30 October: Group Stage – Match Day 6

2009
24-26 February: Quarterfinals, First-legs
3-5 March: Quarterfinals, Second-legs
17-19 March: Semifinals, First-legs
7-9 April: Semifinals, Second-legs
21-23 April: Final, First-leg
28-30 April: Final, Second-leg
December: FIFA Club World Cup

Photos by Hugo Munoz
#1 - Jack Warner, CONCACAF President
#2 - Chuck Blazer, CONCACAF General Secretary

They will be using 07 results for MLS teams given the nature of the MLS season, so D.C. United and Houston will enter at the group stages, and Goff speculates New England and Chivas USA will enter in the preliminary round.

This is great news though and gives me hope that since D.C. United won the last Copa Interamericana which was held 10 years ago, maybe this year we'll win the last CONCACAF Champions Cup

[lions67]

so, for the Canadian club, is just TorontoFC that gets to represent Canada, or can clubs from the other leagues take part?..like the montreal impact or vancouver 86'ers ( not sure if the 86ers are still around or if its the whitecaps again.lol.)

[NEColourULike]

Alright after asking over at BigSoccer here's what I managed to get a hold of:

Canadian soccer on its way to qualifying for FIFA

Whitecaps, FC, and Impact are now eligible to join the CONCACAF Champions League
Dan Stinson, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, January 28, 2008
Three Canadian men’s soccer teams — the Vancouver Whitecaps, Toronto FC and the Montreal Impact — will participate in qualifying games for the CONCACAF club championship tournament for the first time this year, CONCACAF officials announced Monday in New York.

The announcement coincided with the launch of the CONCACAF Champions League, a new continental club championship tournament that will start in August and replaces the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup tournament.

Three Canadian soccer teams - the Vancouver Whitecaps, Toronto FC and the Montreal Impact — are now eligible to compete in the COCONCACAF Champions League, itself a qualifier for FIFA. The format on how Canada’s representative will be decided has not yet been finalized, but Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi suggested it might be a round-robin, home-and-away series.

CONCACAF is an acronym for the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Football Associations. The Champions League will see a confederation record number of 24 teams from all sectors of the region participating.

The preliminary round starts in August, and the first CONCACAF Champions League winner will be crowned in late April 2009. Until this year, Canadian teams have not been invited to participate in a CONCACAF club tournament.

The new format will feature four teams from Mexico and U.S., three Caribbean sides, two clubs each from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama, and one representative from Canada, Belize and Nicaragua.

The format on how Canada’s representative will be decided has not yet been finalized, but Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi suggested it might be a round-robin, home-and-away series.

The Whitecaps and Impact play in the United Soccer Leagues First Division, and Toronto FC plays in Major League Soccer.

“The qualifying games [between the Canadian teams] would have to be in the earlier part of the season,” said Lenarduzzi.

“We would have to have the games concluded by early July considering the preliminary round of the tournament starts in August. This is an exciting development for Canada.”

Eight teams — two from Mexico, two from the U.S., and one from Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador — will be seeded and progress directly to the first round of the CONCACAF Champions League. The remaining 16 teams will be paired in eight home-and-away preliminary match-ups taking place from Aug. 26-28 and Sept. 2-4.

The CONCACAF Champions League winner will qualify as the zone representative in the 2009 FIFA Club World Cup.

danstinson@shaw.ca

So we know the teams, just not how. It would be awesome if the Open Canada Cup became the mode for qualifying, it would give that cup some instant visibility

[jtcrew88]

Will be great to watch! Looking forward to this tourney.

[lions67]

wicked, thanks for checking it out.

[TheLionLyon]

It would be funny at the Club World Cup seeing Barcelona, AC Milan, or Arsenal play the Whitecaps or the Impact. Hopefully, a North American team can win.

[NEColourULike]

What do you guys think this will do to SuperLiga? Chances are the 2 top sides from Mexico and the US will be competing in both Champions Cup and Champions League. It's really sad because SuperLiga was a pretty exciting tournament last year, but I'd rather see D.C. United throw it and focus on the two CONCACAF tourneys than to run up unnecessary fatigue in a competition that doesn't lead to anything more

[shaggy]

Originally Posted by NEColourULike

What do you guys think this will do to SuperLiga? Chances are the 2 top sides from Mexico and the US will be competing in both Champions Cup and Champions League. It's really sad because SuperLiga was a pretty exciting tournament last year, but I'd rather see D.C. United throw it and focus on the two CONCACAF tourneys than to run up unnecessary fatigue in a competition that doesn't lead to anything more

I'm guessing that they will run it as normal for this year. Then in 2009 when the Champions Cup is no longer around maybe you hold SuperLiga during the time period that Champions Cup takes place.

[NEColourULike]

The league is taking some consideration for SuperLiga

From Goff:

*Sources tell me that DCU, Houston, New England and Chivas USA are set to participate in SuperLiga this summer. The Mexican opponents and the match dates should be unveiled sometime in March. What I am also hearing is that MLS will again lighten the regular season schedule for those four clubs around the time of the tournament. Speaking of the regular season, the latest target date for release of the complete schedule is apparently next Thursday, but that could change. I do know that DCU is tenatively scheduled to play its two matches with Real Salt Lake within a couple weeks of each other early in the season.

[ELLADA]

bahahaha - Montreal & Vancouver clubs will show that Toronto sucks in another sport too.