CONCACAF Champions League tweaked for 2018

Goodbye group stage. CON CA CA F announced on Monday a new format for their Champions League competition starting in 2018. They’ve scrapped the group stage in favour of a second tournament for Central American and Caribbean teams, which will serve as a play-in for the round of 16.

Canadian and U.S. teams will enter straight into the revamped CCL at the 16-team knockout stage, which will start in February and end in May.

It’s a huge shift from the current format, which is a year-round tournament that straddles seasons. The Whitecaps, for example, are set to face the New York Red Bulls in the CCL quarter-finals next month. They earned that spot by winning their group last season.

Schedule congestion has been a concern for MLS teams. So has the fact they are in pre-season in February, which puts them at a disad- vantage when facing more in-form Mexican sides.

Obviously that latter point won’t change, but the awkwardness of the competition straddling seasons and rosters changing over that period is gone.

The number of ML Steams able to qualify for the CCL doesn’t change. The U.S. will continue to get four spots and Canada one through the Amway Canadian Championship.

Starting in 2018, those five teams will join four qualifiers from Mex- ico, the winner of the Caribbean Club Championship, the national champions from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama, plus the winner of the new combined Central American and Caribbean tournament, which will take place from August to October the previous year and replace the current CCL group stage.

Toronto FC has already secured Canada’s berth in the 2018 CCL by defeating the Whitecaps on a lastminute goal at B.C. Place.