Today’s announcement in Miami by Jack Warner of the new Champions League format for North American continental club championship was a major step forward for a confederation whose organization and structure has been poor through the years. As was the case in the early 1990s when the Gold Cup replaced the dated CONCACAF Championship as the national team continental championship, the Champions Cup has been dated for ages now.
The new format with 24 teams who begin the competition will be structured as such:
8 seeded teams get direct byes to the group stage
The other 16 teams play a knock out round to determine which 8 teams join the 8 seeded teams in group play
Following the group stage, two teams from each group will advance to the Quarterfinals in February and from that point through the finals in April. this knock out portion of the tournament will resemble the current CONCACAF Champions Cup.
Two MLS teams have won the Champions Cup, DC United in 1998 and Los Angeles Galaxy in 2000.
