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CONCACAF
Champions League
The Confederation of North, Central
American and Caribbean Association Football ("CONCACAF") has
its own Champions League to mirror Europe's
UEFA
Champions League.
The 24-team competition starts August 2008.
The CONCACAF Champions League will feature four teams each from Mexico's
First Division and USA's Major League Soccer; three Caribbean sides; two
from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama; and one
coming from Canada, Belize, and Nicaragua.
Eight clubs (two Mexican, two MLS, one each from Costa Rica, Honduras,
Guatemala, El Salvador) will be seeded and progress directly to the
first round, while the Caribbean slots have been increased to three
teams for this event. The remaining 16 teams will be paired in eight
home-and-away preliminary match-ups.
The preliminary round winners will join the other eight seeded teams in
the group stage that consists of four groups of four. All the teams in
each group will play each other in a round-robin system during six match
dates from September to October.
The top two clubs from each group will advance to the knockout phase
playing home-and-away elimination. The quarterfinals commence in
February '09; semifinals begin in March; and the finals will take place
in late April.
The CONCACAF Champions League winner will qualify as the CONCACAF's
representative to the '09 edition of the FIFA Club World Cup.
Schedule
2008
End July: All qualification completed, draw for preliminary round
26-28 August: Preliminary Round, First-legs
2-4 September: Preliminary Round, Second-legs
Early September: Group Stage Schedule Announced
16-18 September: Group Stage - Match Day 1
23-25 September: Group Stage - Match Day 2
30 September - 2 October: Group Stage - Match Day 3
7-9 October: Group Stage - Match Day 4
21-23 October: Group Stage - Match Day 5
28-30 October: Group Stage - Match Day 6
2009
24-26 February: Quarterfinals, First-legs
3-5 March: Quarterfinals, Second-legs
17-19 March: Semifinals, First-legs
7-9 April: Semifinals, Second-legs
21-23 April: Final, First-leg
28-30 April: Final, Second-leg
December: FIFA Club World Cup
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