CONCACAF Champions League, Coming to a Club Near You. (Unless your team sucks)

By: Laurie | January 29th, 2008

Europe’s Champions League, the tournament where the best European clubs fight it out for the European club championship, is my favorite competition short of World Cup. It’s even better in some ways because it happens every year.

I love seeing the clashing styles of clubs from various countries. I love the best of the best of the best aspect. I love the fact that there is always a minnow or two from a smaller country who makes it past the group stage ahead of some bigger-money teams — and gets a fair bit of money in the process.

Of course there are some downsides. The revenue generated by the CL is one of the main reasons that the rich European teams tend to get richer. And it can detract from and overshadow league play. And the best team doesn’t always win.

But those are minor details. I still love it.

Well guess what, CONCACAF fans? Starting this year, we’re getting our very own Champions League.

The United States and Mexico will have four teams each in the tournament, and the Caribbean region three, along with two each from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama. One team each will come from Belize, Canada, Belize and Nicaragua.

Eight teams will be seeded directly to the first round: two each from the United States and Mexico, and one apiece from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. The other 16 will play home-and-home series in a preliminary round in late August and early September.

Four groups of four teams will contest the first round in September and October, with the top two in each group advancing to the quarter-finals in February 2009. The semifinals will start the following month, and the final will be played in April. The winner earns a berth in the FIFA Club World Cup.

Of course, not everyone is thrilled by this turn of events. Nick Green of The Daily Breeze says:

Out goes a manageable eight-team tournament with a two-game, aggregate score series determining the winners of each round. In comes an unwieldy 24-team tournament that includes a stamina-sucking six group games (three home and three away) in a little more than six weeks. …

The idea is laudable, the execution is not.

The man does have a point. CONCACAF is not Europe, and the MLS schedule, for one, is already so packed with extra tournaments that scheduling is nearly impossible. And most teams just don’t have the roster depth to cover players who fall apart due to overscheduling. This could end up hurting league play at a time when MLS is desperately trying to capitalize on the Beckham effect to build it up.

But I suppose we’ll cross those bridges when we come to them. For now, we have our own Champions League.

(And believe it or not, as far as I can tell, MLS has not figured out a way to get Beckham and the Galaxy into this year’s competition. But stay tuned. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.)

Official MLSnet announcement is here. I couldn’t get it to load this morning, but maybe you’ll have better luck.