As many have read, it came out in TeleFutura's television announcement that there will be a "CONCACAF Champions' League" in 2007. Note that there's still no announcement on the CONCACAF website, which I suppose is not a surprise. I can't imagine that they'd go with a 32 team group stage, 16 seems more likely. I would hope for 2 time slots each day, 7:45 (7:30 pre-game) and 10:00 (9:45 pre-game). That would be 4 matches each week for 6 weeks (assuming home and away group stage), for 24 matches. Then the standard two leg format for the quarterfinals and semifinals, and hopefully a one game final. I like the July 18th start date for MLS, that should work well for them. It should also be after the Copa Libertadores is over, correct? That would free up all Mexican teams to participate.
a concacaf champions league? or a tourny with clubs on the MLS and MFL only??? wow that's very interesting, we really have smart people in the confed.
This is something Garber,Univision and the Mexican Federation were working on. Their was an article a couple months ago that announced a possible tournament starting in 2007.
I can´t imagine the cheap tricks Concacaf has against the costarrican and central american teams, once again.
I hope its not just MLS and MFL, the Costa Rican teams and so on all have to be in their for it to be a true "champions league"
If Central America and the Caribbean are excluded, it shouldn't be called CONCACAF, but North American Champion's Cup.
If this is not an official cup from concacrap then its notthing more than a stupid friendly cup.. and a waste of time and friendly cups dont count as real international championships...... If anything it should be given its blessing from concacrap to be the official concacrap champions cup.....maybe telefutura can do a way better job than what idiot warner and fat so blazer could not do for many years.... make the club cup of the confederation a serious torney.....
Seriously.. they have to include the best teams from ALL countries.. like top 2 in the league or something, just like ECL, it cant just be top mexican/american teams.... that wont go anywhere.
If this is really true, it will be one of the best things to ever happen to MLS. The opportunity to play high-stakes games against the best clubs in the region will only serve to make the league better. The decision to hold the tournament from July until November will improve MLS chances in the tournament. No more "pre-season fitness" excuses. MLS clubs need to add these games to their season ticket packages to draw crowds. It will look really bad on TV if only a few thousand show up. I would LOVE to see DC United play Club America in front of 20,000 at RFK! I do agree, however, with several of the posters here. As much as I love MLS, Costan Rican clubs have proven themselves more than MLS clubs in recent times. I am assuming that the breakdown of the 16 clubs, if done fairly, will look something like this: top four Mexican clubs top two Costa Rican clubs with third place going into a playoff top two MLS clubs with third place going into a playoff (three places determined by Supporters' Shield finish, not MLS Cup playoff finish!) Who would the other clubs be? I don't know enough about CONCACAF club soccer to comment further. Help me out.
got this from the mls boards, from soccerTV.com time to see what mls is made of, since they'll be playing pre-season teams deep, deep into their respective season.
Univision Communications has reached agreements with Soccer United Marketing (SUM) to air 3 products marketed by SUM starting with the 2007 season on the Spanish-language TV network TeleFutura: 1. US Major League Soccer (MLS): 25 matches each season including the MLS All-Star game and the Final, usually on Sundays at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific. 2. The Mexican InterLiga: exclusive coverage of all matches each January, featuring 8 Mexican League teams fighting for 2 spots in Copa Libertadores, South America's premier club competition. 3. CONCACAF Champions League: exclusive coverage on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in July through November, featuring a combination of teams from the Mexican League, MLS, Central America, and the Caribbean, with the winner advancing to the FIFA Club World Championship in December. Formerly known as the CONCACAF Champions Cup (Copa de Campeones), the 2007 CONCACAF Champions League will feature a group stage prior to the elimination rounds. TeleFutura replaces FOX Sports en Espanol as the exclusive US TV outlet for the Mexican InterLiga and the CONCACAF Champions League. TeleFutura reaches about 50 million US TV households via a combination of broadcast TV stations, cable, and satellite. Fear not my little central american friends you will get your oportunity to get your asses kicked too. Lets see how well you do against in season MLS sides.
This is an AMAZING develoment. This means this replaces the CONCACAF Cup with a ligitimate champions league, something we have all wanted. It also means some real money is involved with this TV money. Thank the lord.
don't worry, a mexican side will still win. they've massacred in season/in form mls sides during their pre season before, and im sure it'll happen agian
good.... finally they read this boards and changed the format I hope they don't have the idea of making all the games in the US, home/away games please! 16 teams, 4 groups of 4 teams, 8 on the second round (K.O.), one final game in Paris
will all the games be played in the U.S.? if so this tourney is crap. every single tourney is played home and away. CCC, Copa Sudamericana, Copa Libertadores, UEFA Champion league
this is just mls people looking at the CCC and seeing mexico 22 titles costa rica 6 titles el salvador 3 titles u.s. 2 titles.... and being pissed and wanting to start over with a new tourney and calling it the "Champions League" ooohh aaaah
MLS is only 10 years old and CCC is how old? There are some serious money to fight for. $1 million to the winner guarenteed by FIFA's World Club Cup tournament + prize money that CONCACAF will give. Let's assume it's $1.25 mil to the winner.
I think group stages will be a great for the tournament, but i'm not sure that more than 8 teams is a good idea, I think for now 8 teams is more than enough. Lets pretend this past tournament was group stage it would had been something like this. Group A Toluca Saprisa La Galaxy Olimpia Group B Ne Revolution Alajuela America Caribbean team (sorry i forgot the name)
i think it should be at least 16 teams. 5 mexican, 3 costa rican, 3 mls, 5 from the rest of central america and the caribbean
hahahaha jared.. Do you ever pause and let your brain work for a second?? Ya we are pissed because we only have 2 CCC titles even though our league has participated in the tournament 9 times. Darn we were only able to nab 2 titles before CCC changed to their Late Winter format. MLS teams in "astleast" summer mode will be x2 more competitive than in preseason. It's ********ing common sense to know that. I don't understand why our League is still being looked down upon. It spent its first couple of years just trying to survive. Did people really expect it to be THE LEAGUE for the Americas by now?? The fact the league manages to put a competitive product with less than 2million in salaries is amazing to me. MLS CCC results don't reflect one bit how bad/good the league is. If that was the case then you can make a argument how overated and bad Saprissa is.They got dominated in 3 halves vs the worst team in the MLS. It took them a dive to finally beat them. Which is why our Confederation needs a REAL CLUB TOURNAMENT. It will only make everyones leagues stronger.
late late july i think i cant wait to see a galaxy vs the real chivas in guadalajara would Landon Donovan show up???