News from AEG head Tim Leiwicke at a LA Galaxy town hall meeting. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=80246 The current format of the Pre-Libertadores is as follows: 2 teams from Mexico play a round robin tournament with 2 teams from Venezuela (which the nearly always win) in order to gain entry into Copa Libertadores. I am unsure if the plan is to bring in the Venezuelan teams with the MLS and Mexican teams in the initial playoff round, or to bring in the MLS teams in at what is known as the "Pre-Pre-Libertadores" level where Mexican teams have played off for the right to play off against the Venezuelan teams. In any case, dependent on how fast this is implemented, we could be playing for some serious frigging international hardware in the near future.
oh man theres some good stuff for them in there and for all of MLS. I hope AEG does similar things for the rest of their teams, especially the EPL partnerships. The DC United partnership with German teams sort of died out.
this has got to be one of the best news ever! so when will mls start playing in libertadores? the only bad thing is that mls is horrible playing outside the USA. Don't expect the games against venezuelan teams to be easy.
I've been told now that CONMEBOL is awarding 2 direct spots to Mexico now and granting a 3rd spot to Venezuela. Possibly what will happen is Venezuela allowing playoffs with their 2 and 3 teams against 2 or 3 clubs from Mexico and 2 or 3 clubs from the US. This makes more sense to me because Mexico will be happy to have the chance to have more than 2 clubs in Copa Libertadores with 2 guaranteed, and US clubs have a good shot at getting in playing weaker clubs. The first phase of the Libertadores is actually a 8 group Champions' League like format each club playing the other home and away, with the top two teams advancing to the round of 16. The knockout rounds are played over two legs, including the final, aggregate score with no away goals rule like the MLS playoffs. I must have miscounted or something, but these appear to be the breakdown of spots. Maybe the new spots are coming from Uruguay's oddly large alloment. ARGENTINA (4) BOLIVIA (3) BRASIL (3) CHILE (3) COLOMBIA (3) ECUADOR (3) MEXICO/ VENEZUELA (2) PARAGUAY (3) PERU (3) URUGUAY (5?)
Copa Toyota Libertadores 2004 con 36 equipos Luego de largas deliberaciones, en la reunión de Miembros del Comité Ejecutivo y Presidentes de las Asociaciones Nacionales del 22 de agosto en la CONMEBOL, se resolvió aumentar el número de participantes de la Copa a 36 a partir el año próximo. México tendrá de ahora en más dos (2) equipos clasificados en forma directa, sin Liguilla Pre-Libertadores con los representantes venezolanos. A su vez Brasil contará con cinco (5) equipos, uno más que hasta el momento, y Venezuela tendrá tres (3) representantes directos, al igual que otros siete países. Argentina contará en la edición venidera con cuatro (4) equipos más el campeón (Boca Juniors), pero a partir de 2005 dispondrá de cinco (5) plazas automáticas. El campeón seguirá clasificando de hecho para la edición siguiente. En consecuencia, esta será la distribución de plazas por país: 5 plazas: Argentina y Brasil 3 plazas: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Perú, Uruguay y Venezuela 2 plazas: México Sistema de disputa El sistema de disputa constará de nueve (9) grupos de cuatro (4) equipos. Pasarán a la siguiente ronda los primeros de cada grupo y los cinco (5) mejores segundos. Los siguientes cuatro (4) segundos disputarán el pase jugando entre sí dos contra dos. En el mes de noviembre próximo se realizará el sorteo de la edición 2004. Para el año 2005 se estipuló aumentar a 37 el número de participantes. (Ver artículo completo).
Ok, actually that's much cooler. Starting next year, 36 clubs, 9 groups of 4 teams. Top nine and best 5 second place finishers advance. Distribution of clubs: Argentina (5) Brasil (5) Bolivia (3) Chile (3) Colombia (3) Ecuador (3) Paraguay (3) Perú (3) Uruguay (3) Venezuela (3) México (2) However, they appear to be adding a 37th place in the Libertadores for 2005...no idea how that'll work, though it may be explained in the rest of that article. Is there a link? With Venezuela having 3 spots, I can see them easily selling 2 playoff spots to the US and Mexico to playoff for in a Pre-Libertadores tournament. Actually makes a lot of sense.
My comprehension is better than my translating ability, but I'll give it a shot (BTW, this is cut and paste from the www.conmebol.com website). For 2005 they may increase the number of teams to 37.
I checked out the full article. No further detail on who the 37th team would be. Only other thing I noticed with interest is that this is all provisional of the agreement of CONCACAF, and that Mexico said they were very proud of being part of a tournament with their brothers in soccer. They had a dream, and that dream is coming true. Sorry about all the bold on the last one, but I'm short on time and I've never been good about getting the whole quote thing right.
That makes me wonder whether the MLS/MFL/VEN prelibertadores tournament idea is a way of getting around having a 37th team, when it will actually allow Mexico to have 2 or more additional teams in the tournament, essentially. This is all very intriguing. I happen to think out of all that 'news' Leiwicke spoke of, this is by far the most important, ahead of expansion. But it seems very few are paying attention to it. Can you imagine? Chicago playing the likes of Boca Juniors, Olimpia of Paraguay and America de Cali in the biggest, most important tournament in the Western Hemisphere? Incredible even to think of it.
Wow I am suprised that the FMF would sell their rights to the pre-lib to SUM. The whole reason they want to play the pre-lin instead of sending their champs directley to the cup is because of all the money they can make playing in the US. SUM must of paid a pretty penny.
According to the conmebol.com article, the 37th team for Libertadores 2005 is the 2004 champion. sids, maybe what AEG bought is the right to be the local promoter for the matches, just like AEG is the local promoter for Mexico friendlies in the US.
He did but those were the rights for a pre-lib versus Venezuela. Since CONEMBOL gave Mexico the 2 direct spots they don't have to deal witht he promoter Eduardo Aguirre anymore. Aguirre still has the rights for a pre-lib involving Venezuelan teams.
Maybe SUM bought them both...and that's what Leiwicke meant. A coordinated tournament with 8 MFL teams, 2 MLS and 2 Venezuelan teams in doubleheaders or something, and MFL clubs playing for their two slots and the MLS/Venezuelans playing off for their two. Sounds interesting.