Hello all, it's been a while since I've done a proper post here. Tigres have become champions and as of the time of writing this are headed to the final four of the Club World Cup. Exciting times to be a fan and exciting times for football in the region. But I am not here to talk about the Club World Cup (or the Guatemalan final which kicks off at 12:00 Eastern on Super Bowl Sunday), but instead we are going to talk about the future.
Concacaf announced yesterday, in their trademark fashion of confusing flowchart graphics and videos, a new format for the Concacaf Champions League starting in the Fall of 2023. The 2021, 2022, and 2023 tournaments will be played under the current format, as will the second-tier Concacaf League tournament.
As I said in a tweet yesterday, while the change a few years back from group stage + knockout to straight knockout felt more like a normal format change, this new CCL is dramatically going to change the picture of Concacaf club football, for better and for worse. There are simply so many implications here, so I want to break every piece down one at a time.
The Good
More Teams. The current CCL format sees only 16 teams in the top competition. The second tier Concacaf League has 22 teams, but the top 6 qualify to the CCL later in the cycle, so in total there were 32 teams involved in continental play during a given cycle. Now we have 20 in North America, 20 in Central America, and 10 in the Caribbean, for a total of 50 teams, all in the top level competition. Furthermore, while the Concacaf League will presumably be scrapped (more on that later), there will be new Central American and Caribbean Cups that will essentially replace that second tier and act as CCL qualifying tournaments. We don't yet know the size of these tournaments, but certainly you are looking at upwards of 70 teams participating in continental/subcontinental football, and that can only be a good thing for the overall quality of teams in the region.
Domestic Cup Revivals. We don't care much for our domestic cups here. Mostly everyone has playoffs, and a lot of places treat the local cup like practice games, if such a competition even exists. This announcement should change things. The long neglected Copa MX could get some extra juice with CCL spots on the line. Many Central American countries have floated around the idea of bringing back domestic cups in recent years. Now here is an opportunity to jump start those cups and make teams care about them immediately.
Caribbean Progress. The Caribbean has never been as involved with continental tournaments as it should be, and this is a big step in the right direction. 8 pro teams and 2 semi-pro/amateur sides playing against one another in Champions League matches (that means televised and more publicized than the current Caribbean Shield that you may or may not know exists) is big for developing these teams and players. With a crack at one of the big boys on the line, the Caribbean section of the tournament should be exciting and beneficial for the clubs involved.
Central American Cup and Caribbean Cup. We don't know much of anything about these so far, but they sound awesome! Even though they will fill the same general role as qualifiers for the first tier tournament, I think framing them this way is much better. Being Champions of Central America is a much cooler and alluring title than being Champions of Concacaf's second tier tournament. I hope there is some sort of playoff round between teams from both cups, because it would be a shame to miss out on matchups like Arcahaie vs Herediano in the future.
The Bad
North American Dominance. North America obviously possesses the two strongest leagues in Concacaf, and the Canadian Premier League is proving it isn't too shabby either, but this is a tournament for the entire region. Currently, North America already gets 9/16 slots in the knockout round. It feels a bit like the big boys club, but the Central American and Caribbean teams fight hard and give us a lot of good games. They have been rewarded for their efforts with two less spots; North America will now have 11 knockout spots, Central America has four, and the Caribbean just one. I think it is simply too much for the North American teams at this point. Especially when you consider the Leagues Cup, which already features 8 Liga MX and 8 MLS teams, this decision confuses me a little. Either scrap the Leagues Cup entirely or let that be the Mexico vs USA tournament and give the other countries more of a shake in the CCL.
The Death of the Concacaf League. The Concacaf League is presumably gone after this transition, and replaced by the Central American and Caribbean Cups that are in the works. This is not inherently a bad thing. But it does mean that the final three Concacaf Leagues will lose some steam. Already much of the emphasis is on making it far enough to qualify for the CCL, and that sentiment is sure to increase now. There is no historic emphasis to winning a dying tournament; it is just a blip on the radar now for a club like Alajuelense, whose more casual fans may not recall the tournament ever existed in a decade or so. Again, I think this is more the price you pay for overhauling the system than some sort of horrible error.
The Maybe
Single Leg Final. I know some of the people reading this love the single leg finals, so I'm putting it in the maybe category just for you. But I don't think its a particularly great idea. Two legged series bring their own fun and added drama (especially if there's no away goals like in the Liga MX Final), but a one-off game brings its own charm. I get it. But the bigger issue for me is fan support. This is the biggest game in the region, and it is always going to be played in a neutral site (read: the United States) which can make it hard for fans to get to the game. North America is a huge continent and international travel is a big undertaking. I just can't imagine a full house at MetLife Stadium for say, León vs Vancouver. Maybe the higher seed will get to host instead.
Scheduling Concerns. This is a lot of games added to the schedule. The current CCL runs you at max eight games. Starting in the Concacaf League could add as many as 10 more. That's already quite a bit, and now you're adding even more. The new CCL could run Central American teams (the ones that would normally be in the Concacaf League) as many as 13 games, plus however many need to be played in the Central American Cup. And for North American teams, who may have to play a 34 game regular season plus one or two sets of playoffs, plus a domestic cup, plus the Leagues Cup, and now this many continental games; you are asking a lot of these teams. But there are three years to plan out how to navigate this issue, so I don't think it will necessarily still be a problem when the time comes.
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