https://www.fifa.com/news/matias-almeyda-san-jose-eartquakes-samurai-world-cup is an interview with Matias Almeyda, who has made clubs improve and win titles. San Jose is now sixth of twelve in the Western Conference and in playoff position after being the worst club in MLS by 7 points last year. It says: "You won the Concacaf Champions League with Chivas. Now that you are familiar with the MLS, why do you think teams from this league struggle to reach the FIFA Club World Cup? There are some top players who play in the MLS. However, to make matters fair the leagues need to run concurrently – during the 'Concachampions', clubs from Mexico or other countries are already well into the swing of things. MLS teams go into the competition just a week after the end of preseason and on many occasions are knocked out straight away. This needs to be remedied, and clubs also need more convincing of the benefits of doing well in this competition." I started a new topic because it doesn't have to do with one year's CCL. In addition to Almeyda's answer, I want to note that FIFA normally says every country and club has hope of doing something such as qualifying for the World Cup even if that's not true. They said an African country kept hope of qualifying when they went down 3-0 in the first leg at home and scored a late goal to lose 3-1. FIFA rarely says anybody is struggling.
It may as well be in the fall, Mexican clubs will be playing in the Apertura rather than Clausura but will still be close enough to mid-season fitness. Works better with the December Club World Cup as well by sending a freshly crowned champion (like the Libertadores does), as long as they keep that. We may see the schedule rejigged again if the tournament expansion (32 teams?) that CONCACAF was talking about pre-pandemic comes to pass...
FIFA chose to make a 24 club Club World Cup every four summers to capitalize on the popularity of club soccer. I read a lot about it in FIFA and Tournaments. Club World Cups in December are done or will end soon.
Ok, what happened now for CCL 2020? Both LigaMX and MLS had concurrent tournaments and the result was the same: another win for LigaMX despite everything in MLS teams favor. Same thing. One MLS team makes noise and the rest is history.
Not for the 2021 CCL which starts in April: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2021/01/22/2021-concacaf-champions-league-schedule-announced
Never mind. MLS ensured they are in preseason again: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2021/02/10/mls-2021-regular-season-starts-april-17