2019 CONCACAF League: Difference between revisions

2019 CONCACAF League

2019 Scotiabank CONCACAF League
Tournament details
Teams	16 (from maximum of 10 associations)

The 2019 CONCACAF League (officially the 2019 Scotiabank CONCACAF League for sponsorship purposes) will be the 3rd edition of the CONCACAF League, a football club competition organized by CONCACAF, the regional governing body of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

The winners of the 2019 CONCACAF will qualify for the 2020 CONCACAF Champions League to join the 15 direct entrants.

Qualification

A total of 16 teams participate in the CONCACAF League:

• Central American Zone: 13 teams (from seven associations)
• Caribbean Zone: 3 teams (from two or three associations)

Therefore, teams from either 9 or 10 out of the 41 CONCACAF member associations may participate in the CONCACAF League.

Central America

The 13 berths for the Central American Football Union (UNCAF) are allocated to the seven UNCAF member associations as follows: two berths for each of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and Nicaragua, and one berth for Belize.

All of the leagues of Central America employ a split season with two tournaments in one season, so the following teams qualify for the CONCACAF League:

• In the league of Costa Rica, the champions with the worse aggregate record, and the non-champions with the best aggregate record, qualify. If there is any team which are champions of both tournaments, the non-champions with the second best aggregate record qualify.
• In the leagues of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama, the champions with the worse aggregate record, and the runners-up with the better aggregate record (or any team which are runners-up of both tournaments), qualify. If there is any team which are finalists of both tournaments, the runners-up with the worse aggregate record qualify. If there are any two teams which are finalists of both tournaments, the semi-finalists with the best aggregate record qualify.
• In the league of Nicaragua, both champions qualify. If there is any team which are champions of both tournaments, the runners-up with the better aggregate record (or any team which are runners-up of both tournaments) qualify.
• In the league of Belize, the champions with the better aggregate record (or any team which are champions of both tournaments) qualify.

If teams from any Central American associations are excluded, they are replaced by teams from other Central American associations, with the associations chosen based on results from previous CONCACAF League and CONCACAF Champions League tournaments.

Caribbean

The three berths for the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) are allocated via the Caribbean Club Championship, a subcontinental tournament open to the clubs of all 31 CFU member associations. Since 2018, the competition is divided into two tiers: the Tier 1 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship which is open to teams from professional leagues, and the Tier 2 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield which is open to teams from non-professional leagues.

To qualify for the Tier 1 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship, teams have to finish as the champions or runners-up of their respective association's league in the previous season, while to qualify for the Tier 2 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield, teams have to finish as the champions of their respective association's league in the previous season.

The runners-up and third-placed team of the Tier 1 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship, and the winners of a play-off between the fourth-placed team of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship and the champions of the Tier 2 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield, qualify for the CONCACAF League. For the champions of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield to be eligible for the play-off, they must comply with the minimum CONCACAF Club Licensing requirements for the CONCACAF League.

Teams

The following 16 teams (from eight associations) will qualify for the tournament.

Association	Team	Qualifying method	App	Last App	Previous Best
Central America (13 teams)
Costa Rica 2 berths		Champions with worse aggregate record in 2018–19 season (2018 Apertura or 2019 Clausura champions)
		Non-champions with best aggregate record in 2018–19 season
El Salvador 2 berths		Champions with worse aggregate record in 2018–19 season (2018 Apertura or 2019 Clausura champions)
		Runners-up with better aggregate record in 2018–19 season (2018 Apertura or 2019 Clausura runners-up)
Guatemala 2 berths		Champions with worse aggregate record in 2018–19 season (2018 Apertura or 2019 Clausura champions)	1st	N/A	N/A
		Runners-up with better aggregate record in 2018–19 season (2018 Apertura or 2019 Clausura runners-up)	1st	N/A	N/A
Honduras 2 berths		Champions with worse aggregate record in 2018–19 season (2018 Apertura or 2019 Clausura champions)
		Runners-up with better aggregate record in 2018–19 season (2018 Apertura or 2019 Clausura runners-up)
Panama 2 berths		Champions with worse aggregate record in 2018–19 season (2018 Apertura or 2019 Clausura champions)
		Runners-up with better aggregate record in 2018–19 season (2018 Apertura or 2019 Clausura runners-up)
Nicaragua 2 berths		Champions with better aggregate record in 2018–19 season (2018 Apertura or 2019 Clausura champions)
		Champions with worse aggregate record in 2018–19 season (2018 Apertura or 2019 Clausura champions)
Belize 1 berth		Champions with better aggregate record in 2018–19 season (2018 Opening Season or 2019 Closing Season champions)
Caribbean (3 teams)
TBD		2019 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship runners-up
TBD		2019 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship third place
TBD		2019 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Tier 1–Tier 2 playoff winners

Draw

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Location of teams of the 2018 CONCACAF League
Central American Zone Caribbean Zone

The draw for the 2019 CONCACAF League will be held in May 2019.

The draw determined each tie in the round of 16 (numbered 1 through 8) between a team from Pot 1 and a team from Pot 2, each containing eight teams. The "Bracket Position Pots" (Pot A and Pot B) contained the bracket positions numbered 1 through 8 corresponding to each tie. The teams from Pot 1 were assigned a bracket position from Pot A and the teams from Pot 2 were assigned a bracket position from Pot B. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other in the round of 16 except for "wildcard" teams which replaced a team from another association.

The seeding of teams were based on the CONCACAF Club Index. Each team qualified for the CONCACAF League based on criteria set by the respective associations (e.g., tournament champions, runners-up, cup champions), resulting in an assigned slot (e.g., CRC1, CRC2) for each team. The CONCACAF Club Index, instead of ranking each team, was based on the on-field performance of the teams that have occupied the respective qualifying slots in the previous five editions of the CONCACAF League and CONCACAF Champions League. To determine the total points awarded to a slot in any single edition of the CONCACAF League (CL) or CONCACAF Champions League (CCL), CONCACAF used the following formula:

Points per	Participation	Win	Draw	Stage advanced	Champions
	2 (CL) 4 (CCL)	3	1	0.5 (CL) 1 (CCL)	1 (CL) 2 (CCL)

The 16 teams were distributed in the pots as follows:

As of 31 July 2018

Pot	Rank	Slot	2014–15 CCL	2015–16 CCL	2016–17 CCL	2017–18 CL+CCL	2018–19 CL+CCL	Total	Team
Pot 1	1	CRC2	18	9	14	5	2	48
	2	PAN2	8	10	8	13	2	41
	3	HON2	8	11	11	2	2	34
	4	SLV2	5	6	5	11.5	2	29.5
	5	CCC2	10	7	5	2	2	26
	6	NCA1	6	4	6	5	2	23
	7	GUA2	8	8	6	0	0	20
	8	CCC3	4	5	4	5	2	20
Pot 2	9	BLZ1	0	8	4	2	2	16
	10	PAN3	0	0	0	11	5	16
	11	SLV3	0	0	0	8.5	5	13.5
	12	NCA2	0	0	0	9.5	2	11.5
	13	HON3	0	0	0	2	5	7
	14	CRC3	0	0	0	2	2	4
	15	CCC4	0	0	0	2	2	4
	16	GUA3	0	0	0	0	0	0

Notes

  Indicates qualifier for this slot is still alive in the 2018 CONCACAF League (and possibly 2019 CONCACAF Champions League) and point values may change as a result.

See also

• 2020 CONCACAF Champions League

External links

• Scotiabank CONCACAF League