CONCACAF Champions Cup

CONCACAF Champions Cup

File:CONCACAF CL logo.png
Founded	1962
Region	North America, Central America, Caribbean (CONCACAF)
Number of teams	16 (Group stage) 24 (Total)
Current champions	Atlante (2nd time)
Most successful club(s)	Cruz Azul América (5 times each)
Website	CONCACAF Champions League
2008–09 Champions League

The CONCACAF Champions League is the annual international club football championship for teams from the CONCACAF region (North America, Central America, and the Caribbean). The competition is open to the leading teams in the region, and replaced the CONCACAF Champions' Cup which ran from 1962 to 2008. The winner earns a berth in the next FIFA Club World Cup, which pits each continental confederation's champion against the others annually.

History

File:CONCACAF CC logo.png

Champions' Cup logo

The competition's former format, called the Champions' Cup, had eight teams competing - four from the North American zone (two from Mexico, two from the United States/Canada), three from the Central American zone, and one from the Caribbean zone. Since 2005, the champion of the competition also gained entry into the FIFA Club World Cup, giving clubs an added incentive for a strong participation and greater interest from fans. Also the Champions' Cup Runner-up would be one of the three CONCACAF invitees to the Copa Sudamericana.

The CONCACAF Executive Committee at their 2006 November meeting 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. The CONCACAF Executive Committee reported on November 14, 2007 some of the details. The previous Champions' Cup format was used as planned in the Spring of 2008. Then, a newly expanded Champions League tournament was conducted starting in August 2008 and concluding in May 2009. The setup involves 24 teams initially and features a Preliminary Round contested by some of the teams to reduce the field to 16 teams, which are separated into 4 groups of four teams. After the Group Stage, the Championship Round are held from the Quarterfinal Round onward.

Qualifying

The new format will feature 24 teams in total.

From the North American Zone:

4 clubs from Mexico

4 clubs from the United States

1 club from Canada

From the Central American Zone:

2 clubs from Costa Rica

2 clubs from El Salvador

2 clubs from Guatemala

2 clubs from Honduras

2 clubs from Panama

1 club from Nicaragua

1 club from Belize

From the Caribbean Zone:

3 clubs, qualifying via the CFU Club Championship.

Stadium standards

If a club fails to fit the standards for its home stadium, such club must find a suitable stadium in its own country. If such club fails to provide the adequate facilities, it will be in risk to be replaced.

• Central America: 12 Central American clubs can qualify to the Champions League, if one or more clubs is precluded, it is supplanted by a club of the best Central American leagues based on results from the current Champions League, for example, in session 2009-2010, it will be an Honduran club.

• Caribbean: If any Caribbean club is precluded, it is supplanted by the "CFU Club Championship" 4th place finisher.

Format

There will be a two-legged Preliminary Round for 16 clubs, with the eight winners advancing to the Group Stage. The other eight teams (two from the United States, two from Mexico, and one each from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) will be seeded directly into the Group Stage. The winners of the Preliminary Round and the seeded clubs will play in the Group Stage in four groups of four, with each team playing the others in its group twice, both home and away. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Championship Round, which will consist of home-and-away elimination. The Final Round, in late April, will also be two-legged, home-and-away. In contrast to the Champions' Cup, the away goals rule will be used in the Champions League, but will not apply after a tie has gone into extra time.

Finals

Year	Final
	Winner	Score	Runner-up
2009-10 Details	To be played - qualification underway
2008-09 Details	Atlante			2 - 0 / 0 - 0 Aggregate 2 - 0	Cruz Azul
2008 Details	Pachuca	1 - 1 / 2 - 1 Aggregate 3 - 2	Saprissa
2007 Details	Pachuca	2 - 2 / 0 - 0 Aggregate 2 - 2 7-6 pens	Guadalajara
2006 Details	América	0 - 0 / 2 - 1 Aggregate 2 - 1	Deportivo Toluca
2005 Details	Saprissa	2 - 0 / 1 - 2 Aggregate 3 - 2	Universidad Nacional
2004 Details	Alajuelense	1 - 1 / 4 - 0 Aggregate 5 - 1	Saprissa
2003 Details	Deportivo Toluca	3 - 3 / 2 - 1 Aggregate 5 - 4	Monarcas Morelia
2002 Details	Pachuca	1 - 0	Monarcas Morelia
2000 Details	Los Angeles Galaxy	3 - 2	Olimpia
1999 Details	Necaxa	2 - 1	Alajuelense
1998 Details	D.C. United	1 - 0	Deportivo Toluca
1997 Details	Cruz Azul	5 - 3	Los Angeles Galaxy
1996 Details	Cruz Azul	(1)	Necaxa
1995 Details	Saprissa	(1)	Municipal
1994 Details	Cartaginés	3 - 2	Atlante
1993 Details	Saprissa	(1)	Léon
1992 Details	América	1 - 0	Alajuelense
1991 Details	Puebla	3 - 1 / 1 - 1 Aggregate 4 - 2	Police FC
1990 Details	América	2 - 2 / 6 - 0 Aggregate 8 - 2	FC Pinar del Río
1989 Details	Universidad Nacional	1 - 1 / 3 - 1 Aggregate 4 - 2	FC Pinar del Río
1988 Details	Olimpia	2 - 0 / 2 - 0 Aggregate 4 - 0	Defence Force
1987 Details	América	1 - 1 / 2 - 0 Aggregate 3 - 1	Defence Force
1986 Details	Alajuelense	4 - 1 / 1 - 1 Aggregate 5 - 2	Transvaal
1985 Details	Defence Force	2 - 0 / 0 - 1 Aggregate 2 - 1	Olimpia
1984 Details	Violette	(2)	New York Pancyprian-Freedoms Guadalajara
1983 Details	Atlante	1 - 1 / 5 - 0 Aggregate 6 - 1	Robinhood
1982 Details	Universidad Nacional	0 - 0 / 3 - 2 Aggregate 3 - 2	Robinhood
1981 Details	Transvaal	1 - 0 / 1 - 1 Aggregate 2 - 1	Atlético Marte
1980 Details	Universidad Nacional	(1)	Universidad
1979 Details	FAS	1 - 0 / 8 - 0 Aggregate 9 - 0	CRKSV Jong Colombia
1978 Details	Universidad de Guadalajara Comunicaciones Defence Force	(3)
1977 Details	América	1 - 0 / 0 - 0 Aggregate 1 - 0	Robinhood
1976 Details	Águila	6 - 1 / 2 - 1 Aggregate 8 - 2	Robinhood
1975 Details	Atlético Español	2 - 0 / 1 - 1 Aggregate 3 - 1	Transvaal
1974 Details	Municipal	2 - 1 / 2 - 1 Aggregate 4 - 2	Transvaal
1973 Details	Transvaal	(2)	Saprissa Alajuelense
1972 Details	Olimpia	0 - 0 / 2 - 0 Aggregate 2 - 0	Robinhood
1971 Details	Cruz Azul	(1)	Alajuelense
1970 Details	Cruz Azul	(2)	Saprissa Transvaal
1969 Details	Cruz Azul	0 - 0 / 1 - 0 Aggregate 1 - 0	C.S.D. Comunicaciones
1968 Details	Deportivo Toluca	(2)	Transvaal Aurora
1967 Details	Alianza	1 - 2 / 3 - 0 Aggregate 4 - 2	CRKSV Jong Colombia
1963 Details	Haïtien	(2)	Guadalajara
1962 Details	Guadalajara	1 - 0 / 5 - 2 Aggregate 6 - 2	C.S.D. Comunicaciones

¹ No final match was held. The championship was decided by a final round.

² Championship won due to other teams withdrawing and/or becoming disqualified.

³ Universidad de Guadalajara, Comunicaciones and Defence Force were all declared joint winners after the final tournament was cancelled due to administrative problems and disagreement on the dates.

Records and statistics

Main article: CONCACAF Champions' Cup and Champions League records and statistics

Top 10 Clubs

Rank	Team	Wins	Runners-up	Years won	Years runner-up
1	Cruz Azul	5	1	1969, 1970, 1971, 1996, 1997, 2009
	América	5	0	1977, 1987, 1990, 1992, 2006
3	Saprissa	3	4	1993, 1995, 2005	1970, 1973, 2004, 2008
4	Universidad Nacional	3	1	1980, 1982, 1989	2005
5	Pachuca	3	0	2002, 2007, 2008
6	Transvaal	2	4	1973, 1981	1968, 1974, 1975, 1986
	Alajuelense	2	4	1986, 2004	1971, 1973, 1992, 1999
8	Deportivo Toluca	2	2	1968, 2003	1998, 2006
	Olimpia	2	2	1972, 1988	1985, 2000
	Defence Force	2	2	1978, 1985	1987, 1988
Atlante	2	0	2009

Top 10 Nations

Rank	Nation	Winner	Runner-up	Winners	Runners-up
1	Mexico	25	12	Cruz Azul (5), América (5), Universidad Nacional (3), Pachuca (3), Deportivo Toluca (2), Guadalajara (1), Atlante (2), Necaxa (1), Puebla (1), Universidad de Guadalajara (1), Atlético Español (1)	Guadalajara (3), Deportivo Toluca (2), Monarcas Morelia (2), Universidad Nacional (1), Necaxa (1), Atlante (1), León (1), Cruz Azul (1)
2	Costa Rica	6	8	Saprissa (3), Alajuelense (2), Cartaginés (1)	Alajuelense (4), Saprissa (4)
3	El Salvador	3	1	Alianza (1), Águila (1), FAS (1)	Atlético Marte (1)
4	Suriname	2	10	Transvaal (2)	Transvaal (5), Robinhood (5)
5	Guatemala	2	4	Municipal (1), Comunicaciones (1)	Comunicaciones (2), Municipal, Aurora (1)
6	Honduras	2	3	Olimpia (2)	Olimpia (2), Universidad (1)
	Trinidad and Tobago	2	3	Defence Force (2)	Defence Force (2), Police FC (1)
8	United States	2	2	D.C. United (1), Los Angeles Galaxy (1)	Los Angeles Galaxy (1), New York Pancyprian-Freedoms (1)
9	Haiti	2	0	Haïtien (1), Violette (1)
10	Cuba	0	2		FC Pinar del Río (2)
	Netherlands Antilles	0	2		CRKSV Jong Colombia (2)

See also

• Interamerican Cup
• CONCACAF Giants Cup
• CONCACAF Cup Winners Cup
• North American SuperLiga

References

• CONCACAF Club competitions of rsssf

External links

• CONCACAF Official Site