CONCACAF Champions Cup

Champions' Cup trophy won by CD Olimpia in 1972

Prior to 2008, the tournament was called the CONCACAF Champions' Cup, but was usually referred to simply as the Champions' Cup. The competition was initially created as a possible measure to enter the South American Copa Libertadores, a competition organized by CONMEBOL. The competition had several different formats over its lifetime. Initially, only the champions of the North American leagues participated. In 1971, the runners-up of a few North American leagues began to join and the tournament began to be expanded, incorporating round-robin group phases and more teams.

During the opening rounds of the tournament, teams would compete within one of three regional zones: North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Typically the winner of one zone would receive a bye to the Champions' Cup final while the winner of the other two zones would compete in a semifinal. From 1981, the North and Central American zones were usually combined meaning that the winner of the joint zone would face the winner of the Caribbean zone in the final. From 1993 to 1996, three clubs from the North/Central American zone and one club from the Caribbean zone qualified for the final round of the tournament which was held in a central location.

After the creation of the United States' Major League Soccer, the competition became an eight-team knockout tournament with zonal qualification. The first four editions were hosted in a central location with single leg ties before changing to a home-and-away format in 2002. Four North American zone clubs qualified from Liga MX or Major League Soccer, three Central American clubs from the UNCAF Interclub Cup, and one Caribbean club from the CFU Club Championship. In 2002 and 2003, the tournament consisted of 16 teams with twice as many qualifying from each zone. Since 2005, the champion of the competition gained entry into the FIFA Club World Cup, giving clubs an added incentive for a strong participation and greater interest from fans.

At their 2006 November meeting, the CONCACAF Executive Committee decided to "act upon" a proposal at their next meeting by the CONCACAF Secretariat to develop the CONCACAF Champions' Cup into a larger "Champions League" style event. On 14 November 2007, the CONCACAF Executive Committee reported some of the details.[4]

The last eight-team Champions' Cup format was used as planned in March and April 2008. Then, a newly expanded 24-team Champions League tournament was conducted starting in August 2008 and concluding in May 2009.[4][5] The expanded tournament meant that Central American clubs would qualify directly and thus the UNCAF Interclub Cup was ended after 2007.

In the new Champions League tournament, there was a two-legged preliminary round for 16 clubs, with the eight winners advancing to the group stage. They were joined by the other eight teams who qualified directly to the group stage. The clubs involved in the group stage were placed into four groups of four with each team playing the others in its group in both home and away matches. The top two teams from each group advanced to quarterfinals of the knockout rounds, which consisted of two-legged ties. The final round was also two-legged. Also, unlike the previously contested CONCACAF Champions' Cup, the away goals rule is used in the CONCACAF Champions League, but does not apply after a tie goes into extra time.[6]

On January 12, 2012, CONCACAF announced that the 2012–13 tournament would be played under a different format than previous editions, where the preliminary round is eliminated and all qualified teams enter the group stage.[7] In the group stage, the 24 teams are drawn into eight groups of three, with each group containing one team from each of the three pots. The allocation of teams into pots are based on their national association and qualifying berth. Teams from the same association (excluding "wildcard" teams which replace a team from another association) cannot be drawn with each other in the group stage, and each group is guaranteed to contain a team from either the United States or Mexico, meaning U.S. and Mexican teams cannot play each other in the group stage. Each group is played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The winners of each group advance to the quarterfinal round of the championship stage.

In the championship stage, the eight teams play a single-elimination tournament. Each tie is played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. The away goals rule is used if the aggregate score is level after normal time of the second leg, but not after extra time, and so a tie is decided by penalty shoot-out if the aggregate score is level after extra time of the second leg. Unlike previous years where a second draw was conducted to set the pairings for the championship stage, the bracket is determined by the teams' record in the group stage.[8] The quarterfinals match the team with the best record against the team with the worst record, while the second-best team faces the seventh-best, third against sixth and fourth against fifth. The top four teams play the second leg at home. In the semifinals, the winner of 1-vs-8 faces the winner of 4-vs-5, with the 1-vs-8 winner hosting the second leg, and likewise 2-vs-7 plays 3-vs-6, with the 2-vs-7 winner hosting the second leg. In the finals, the team that prevails out of the upper bracket of 1-8-4-5 hosts the second leg. This means that the higher-seeded team does not necessarily host the second leg in the semifinals and finals.

In December 2016, Manuel Quintanilla, president of the Nicaraguan Football Federation, spoke of a possible new format for the competition,[9] a statement that was later corroborated by Garth Lagerwey, the general manager of Seattle Sounders FC.[10] On 23 January 2017, CONCACAF confirmed the new 16-team format beginning with the 2018 edition, eliminating the group stage which had been employed since the re-branding of the competition to the CONCACAF Champions League in 2008.[11]

Under the new CONCACAF competition platform, a new secondary tournament called CONCACAF League would be played from August to December beginning in 2017. The winner of CONCACAF League would qualify to the following year's Champions League where they would be joined by nine North American teams, the Caribbean Club Championship winner, and five Central American league champions who qualified directly.[11] For the 2019–20 competition cycle, the direct Central American berths were removed and CONCACAF League was expanded so that the top-six clubs would qualify to Champions League.

The CONCACAF Champions League under this format had four rounds – round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final – with each being a home-and-away two-legged basis with the away goals rule.[11] However, beginning in 2019, the away goals rule would not be applied for the final round.

In February 2021, CONCACAF announced a major overhaul of the tournament which would have included 50 teams and a regional group stage.[12] Twenty teams from North America, twenty teams from Central America, and ten teams from the Caribbean would have been divided into groups of five teams where a total of 16 teams would advance to the knockout stage.[13] This format was abandoned and was never used.

In September of that year, CONCACAF announced an expansion of the tournament to begin in 2024. The tournament will retain the all-knockout format used since 2018 but will now consist of five rounds and 27 teams participating:

• 6 Liga MX clubs
• 5 MLS clubs
• 2 Canadian Premier League clubs
• 1 U.S. Open Cup winner
• 1 Canadian Championship winner
• 3 Leagues Cup clubs
• 6 Central America Cup clubs
• 3 Caribbean Cup clubs

Twenty-two clubs will enter the tournament in Round One while five clubs (the winners of MLS Cup, Liga MX, Leagues Cup, Central American Cup, and Caribbean Cup) receive byes to the round of 16.

Teams may qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League through their domestic leagues or cups, or through their regional cup competitions: the Leagues Cup for teams from North America, the Central American Cup for teams from Central America, and a CONCACAF Caribbean Cup for teams from the Caribbean. All matches will include home and away series between the first round to the semi-finals, with the final being a single match at a neutral site.[14] The CONCACAF League would also cease in 2022 with this new format.[15]

On 6 June 2023, it was announced that to coincide with the new format, the competition had been renamed back to CONCACAF Champions Cup.[16]

Starting with the 2024 edition of the competition, the winning club will receive over US$5,000,000 in prize money and financial distributions.[22] In addition, the winning club qualifies for the FIFA Club World Cup, which includes additional prize money.

In 2022, the prize money paid to clubs was as follows:[23]

• Winner: $500,000
• Runner-up: $300,000
• Semifinalists: $200,000

Each year, the winning team is presented with the CONCACAF Champion League trophy. The current trophy design was introduced in 2018.[24]

Performances in the CONCACAF Champions Cup and CONCACAF Champions League by club

Club	Titles	Runners-up	Years won	Years runners-up
América	7	1	1977, 1987, 1990, 1992, 2006, 2015, 2016	2021
Cruz Azul	6	2	1969, 1970, 1971, 1996, 1997, 2014	2009, 2010
Pachuca	5	0	2002, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2017
Monterrey	5	0	2011, 2012, 2013, 2019, 2021
Saprissa	3	2	1993, 1995, 2005	2004, 2008
UNAM	3	2	1980, 1982, 1989	2005, 2022
Transvaal	2	3	1973, 1981	1974, 1975, 1986
Toluca	2	3	1968, 2003	1998, 2006, 2014
Alajuelense	2	3	1986, 2004	1971, 1992, 1999
Defence Force	2	2	1978†, 1985	1987, 1988
Olimpia	2	2	1972, 1988	1985, 2000
Guadalajara	2	2	1962, 2018	1963, 2007
Atlante	2	1	1983, 2009	1994
Necaxa / Atlético Español	2	1	1975, 1999	1996
UANL	1	3	2020	2016, 2017, 2019
Comunicaciones	1	2	1978†	1962, 1969
Municipal	1	1	1974	1995
León	1	1	2023	1993
LA Galaxy	1	1	2000	1997
Racing	1	0	1963
Alianza	1	0	1967
Águila	1	0	1976
Leones Negros UdeG	1	0	1978†
FAS	1	0	1979
Violette	1	0	1984
Puebla	1	0	1991
Cartaginés	1	0	1994
D.C. United	1	0	1998
Seattle Sounders FC	1	0	2022
Robinhood	0	5		1972, 1976, 1977, 1982, 1983
Jong Colombia	0	2		1967, 1979
Pinar del Río	0	2		1989, 1990
Morelia	0	2		2002, 2003
Santos Laguna	0	2		2012, 2013
Los Angeles FC	0	2		2020, 2023
Universidad	0	1		1980
Atlético Marte	0	1		1981
Police	0	1		1991
Real Salt Lake	0	1		2011
CF Montréal	0	1		2015
Toronto FC	0	1		2018

†Title shared.

* When sorted by years won or lost, the table is sorted by the year of each team's most recent inaugural win or loss.

Performances in finals by nation

Nation	Titles	Runners-up	Total
Mexico	38†	20	58
Costa Rica	6	5	11
United States	3	4	7
El Salvador	3	1	4
Suriname	2	8	10
Honduras	2	3	5
Trinidad and Tobago	2†	3	5
Guatemala	2†	3	5
Haiti	2	0	2
Cuba	0	2	2
Netherlands Antilles	0	2	2
Canada	0	2	2

†Including one title shared.