CONCACAF Women’s Champions League

Houston will also play a preseason match against Pumas on March 2nd

 

Reviving this thread because of the recent announcement about the Canadian women's pro league. Not just that a women's CCL is a possibility - Matheson has stated that the fact the women's CCL is happening was one of several reasons they decided now was the time to strike for starting up the league
https://theathletic.com/3980555/2022/12/07/diana-matheson-canada-womens-league/

Now, does this mean the women's CCL will wait until the Candidan league starts in 2025, or will the CCL start sooner and the league is catching up? That, I haven't been able to tell yet

 

Bumping this thread again with two pieces of news:

Apparently the PR Sol have been invited to the upcoming UNCAF Copa Interclubs - the first non-UNCAF team to get an invite. This is per the PR Sol's Twitter account, and I haven't found verification of this elsewhere yet. This next Copa Interclubs will supposedly take place in the first week of September this year. I was suspicious because I thought the Copa Interclubs was completely abandoned after COVID hit...

...but then, in the second piece of news, I discovered that there actually had been a 2022 competition! Also in September. (I forget which past thread I had been previously posting UNCAF Copa Interclub updates in, hence posting here as I assume the UNCAF championship might be a qualifier to a C'CAF champions league.) Eight teams from the seven UNCAF nations, with CRC getting a second (not sure if it was as hosts, as defending champions, or whatever). Alajuelense topped group A with 9pts, while Saprissa won group B with 7 (draw with Panamanian side Tauro, 5pts); Salvadorian side FAS eked out a 4pt tiebreak to take second in group A. Notably, all four sides are traditional powers in the men's game, but aside from Saprissa, this is their first time showing strong in the women's game. No real playoffs, just placement games, with FAS beating Tauro on PKs for third place and Alajuelense prevailing 1-0 over Saprissa for the title. American Mia Corbin (Alajuelense) was the top scorer, including the lone goal in the title match.

 

The Concacaf Council today discussed and agreed in principle to launch a new Concacaf women’s club competition in 2024.
The format and further details of Concacaf’s new women’s club competition will be determined and communicated later this year, once the Confederation has received further information regarding the format and slot allocation for the new FIFA Women’s Club World Cup, and has held further discussions with stakeholders.
The new Concacaf women’s club competition will include clubs from North America, Central America, and the Caribbean and will be the sole qualification route for Concacaf clubs to the FIFA Women’s Club World Cup.
https://www.concacaf.com/en/concaca...-to-launch-concacaf-women-s-club-competition/

 

2024 launch, huh? That doesn't give them much time. But that's unsurprising for how C'CAF tends to organize its WoSo stuff.

Let's spitball that it's a two-leg knockout competition, no groups, like the men's version currently is. I say this because IDK if any league outside of USA/MEX can have their clubs commit to a more drawn-out campaign, and this format seems like the smallest commitment you can give.

Let's also say it's an 8-team competition: 2 USA, 2 MEX, 1 CAN, 2 UNCAF, 1 CFU. USA qualifiers are the Shield and Playoff winners (next best team in the standings if those two are the same), MEX qualifiers are the Liguilla champions (next best team in the combined A+C standings if those two are the same), and UNCAF qualifiers are the two Interclubs finalists. Assuming the qualifiers have to be determined in 2023, then we have:
USA - season in session
MEX - UANL (Apertura champions) + 5 teams currently qualified to Clausara Liguilla with 3 TBD
UNCAF - if the tournament is in Sept again, then potential qualifiers are being determined in domestic leagues this spring & summer... and the only UNCAF league I can find on soccerway is Panama, which follows a regular season with an 8-team playoff

 

Forgot to bump this in Sept when the UNCAF championship happened! Eight teams, the champions of the seven UNCAF nations plus the aforementioned and much-touted PR Sol. If you expected the Sol to come barrelling through UNCAF like the did locally... They definitely didn't. 4pts in group A, ending in 3rd place on GD and thus going going to the 5th-6th placement match (which they did win). The winners of the two groups, Tauro (PAN) in group A and Alajuelense (CRC) in group B, both went 3-0 and then drew the final match, the first time that's happened in this competition. Eventually Alajuelense won on PKs to repeat as champion, only the second club to do so after AD Moravia (also of CRC). Another past champion, Unifut (GUA) won the third-place match (and was the team tied with the PR Sol on points in Group A but prevailed on GD).

Still no news on the 2024 C'CAF Women's Champions League, but let's continue spitballing as before:
USA - SD Wave got the Shield, and they (plus #2 POR Thorns) are among the four teams still vying for the Playoff title
MEX - UANL (Apt.22) + America (Cls.23)
UNCAF - Alajuelense (CRC) + Tauro (PAN)
CAN - I don't know how this would be picked
CFU - Same as above, though probably the PR Sol?

 

And we finally have it:
https://www.concacaf.com/news/conca...club-competition-with-annual-w-champions-cup/
The qualification slots & competition format are both bonkers:

The inaugural Concacaf W Champions Cup will be the 2024/25 edition, with Preliminary Round and Group Stage matches scheduled for August, September, and October 2024 and a final four centralized Semifinals and Final in May 2025.

The competition will be played annually between 11 clubs from Member Associations which meet Concacaf’s eligibility criteria. Clubs will qualify through their domestic leagues based on sporting merit through criteria which must be proposed by their Member Association and ratified by Concacaf. The qualification slots are allocated to Member Associations as follows:

• Canada: 1 club in Preliminary Round*
• Costa Rica: 1 club in Group Stage
• El Salvador: 1 club in Preliminary Round*
• Jamaica: 1 club in Group Stage
• Mexico: 3 clubs in Group Stage
• Panama: 1 club in Group Stage
• USA: 3 clubs in Group Stage

*The best club from each of Canada and El Salvador will compete in a Preliminary Round play-in to determine which of them progresses to the Group Stage.

Who knows what the "eligiblity critera" are, but I'd wager that Guatemala and Puerto Rico will feel very cheated by this format. The five-team group stage is absolutely nuts. Plus, absolutely no sign of what the competition might look like next time around! Geeeez....

One interesting note: the sway NWSL has over this competition is obvious in how the group stage will end in October (around NWSL postseason) while the semifinals won't be played until MAY the following year (well into NWSL's next season). That's a massive delay between tournament stages, but damn does it cater to NWSL teams being in-form for the knockout stage. Might even be that the five-team group stage was built to allow NWSL teams a bye right when their postseason push is happening, e.g. their WCC games being in Aug&Sept.

 

sadly Puerto Rico Sol whose amazing run and ambition to be in this tournament will not happen suffering financial difficulties but the amazing 3-4 years run unbeaten consecutive league wins, unearthing excellent talent some who moved to well known clubs in the world not forgotten

— Wosoworld (@karlyboy71) March 12, 2024

Guatemala I don't know guess the other two not ready, Jamaica would not be in i believe if Puerto Rico Sol was there.

— Wosoworld (@karlyboy71) March 12, 2024

 

Won't be an issue this year, but it will be *very* interesting to see what USSF does with the USA '25-'26 WCC slots when they suddenly have two D1 leagues operating at once. Does USSF quietly shun USLSL entirely? Will it be 2 NWSL - 1 USLSL? Maybe one each with a playoff for the third? Will the WCC expand for its second year and USA get more than 3? Gotta grab the popcorn bucket to watch this one play out.

 

Missed this last week: CONCACAF announced what the qualifications process would be for each country, after reviewing and approving the suggestions from the participating national federations:
https://www.concacaf.com/news/conca...ederation-s-2024-25-concacaf-w-champions-cup/

For the 2024/25 CWCC, we have:

USA: 2023 Champion, Shield winner, and Shield runner-up (NJ/NY Gotham FC, San Diego Wave, Portland Thorns)
MEX: 2023/24 Liguilla winners, best Liguilla runner-up based on combined full-year standings (Tigres UANL, TBD, TBD)

CRC: 2023 champion, decided by playoff if Apertura and Clausara champions differ (Alajuelense)
JAM: 2022/23(!) champion (Fraziers Whip)
PAN: 2024 Apertura (only!) champions (TBD)

CAN: 2023 Ligue1 Inter-Province Championship winners (Vancouver Whitecaps Girls Elite)
SLV: 2023/24 champion, decided by playoff if Apertura and Clausara champions differ (TBD)

Weird to me that Jamaica is use 2022/23 instead of 2023/24, though I don't know their schedule enough to know if their 23/24 season goes so late as to run up against the start of the CWCC. Panama not using a full year to determine its participant is also kinda weird.

Draw for the groups will occur on June 6th.

 

It still sours a bit that Puerto Rico Sol wasn't invited...

 

Hard for a team that doesn't exist anymore to participate

But one might think that PR would've at least gotten a qualification slot

Same to Guatemala for how well they've done in the Uncaf Interclub tournament

Qualification requirements for leagues/infrastructure must be pretty strict

 

Uh.... I knew about PR Sol financial problems... but what you mean dosen't exist anymore?
Has the club went bancrupt altogether or just sold it's players?

 

From what I can tell on the Liga PR site, the club still exists, but is only still participating in the men's league. The Sol women's team was not a participant in the fall women's season and does not seem to be participating in the freshly-started youth spring season either. So the club overall is still active, but the women's team itself does not seem to exist any more. I guess there's the chance of the team being revived, but that probably won't happen soon, especially with no pipeline.

 

We could get a qualifier from Mexico tonight. As Tigres already qualified by running the Apertura and leads the aggregate table, it's possible for America to qualify tonight, as they were Apertura runners-up and currently second in the aggregate table. However, they are tied with Monterrey and only ahead on GD with one game left to play for each tonight. If America can stay in second in the aggregate table, they'll qualify as best runner-up. (If Monterrey passes them *and* Monterrey ends up as Clausara runner-up, then America is out.)

 

Two surprising results:
America got just their second draw of the Clausara
...and Monterrey got just their third loss

AFAICT, no official post from Concacaf or America yet, but I'm pretty sure America are now qualified to the CWCC, as they'll either win the Liguilla or fail to win but be the best of the A/C runners-up.

 

America was officially announced as qualified on Tuesday!

I'm kinda curious now how the hand-me-down spots will work for the third MEX spot. Some scenarios are easy - I assume if any combination of Tigres, America, and Monterrey make the Clausara final, then Monterrey is in. But if Tigres or America wins and anyone else besides Monterrey is the runner-up, what of the third slot then? Will the third slot got to the second runner-up (whoever it is) or the next spot down the table (Monterrey) b/c the second runner-up isn't the "best" runner-up?

I can't find any info on the Salvadorean season at the moment aside from that Alianza won the 2023 Apertura.

Panama's 2024 Apertura final tournament just completed their semifinals, with Santa Fe defeating Mario Mendez (5-1 on aggr.) and CIEX Sports defeating Chorillo (second leg score not yet announced? I'm just going off of Soccerway right now.). Chorillo was the only team in the six-team playoffs who have ever made a previous final; four-time defending champions Tauro FC and three-time past champions CD Universitario are no longer participating in the league

 

I realized I forgot to check in last week about Panama's spot... and it seems like almost everyone else forgot as well. Santa Fe's Twitter stopped updating at halftime during the final, when they were up 1-0, and they eventually won 4-0. The league's account celebrated their victory, but didn't mention anything about the CWCC, and CONCACAF's account hasn't said a peep - they were more concerned, apparently, abut Houston actually getting a win in NWSL and Bunny Shaw being named player of the year in England. Only a few personal accounts have mentioned Santa Fe getting Panama's spot in the CWCC

 

And just to summarize:

USA: NJ/NY Gotham FC, San Diego Wave, Portland Thorns
MEX: Tigres UANL, America, Monterrey [yet to be announced]

CRC: Alajuelense
JAM: Fraziers Whip
PAN: Santa Fe

CAN: Vancouver Whitecaps Girls Elite
SLV: TBD [Alianza, or playoff winners]

For the LMXF Clausara Liguilla, the final is Monterrey vs America, to be played on the 24th and 27th, set as of yesterday. Whoever wins gets the Clasuara champions spot; if Monterrey win, America would be best runner-up regardless of their table position by being runners-up both times, and if America win, Monterrey should be in either as best runner-up not already qualified, as second-best-runner-up, or simply by being #3 in the combined table. Neither CONCACAF nor the team has announced it, but some fan profiles have said as much.

Still can't find any info on the Salvadorean Clausara, but I would imagine it's close to being determined if it hasn't been already.

 

Doesn't affect qualifying, but still of interest for this thread: America won their home leg 1-0. The return leg is on Monday. If it ends in an aggregate draw, it goes straight to PKSO, no away goals or seeding victory. (Monterrey was officially announced as qualified on Wednesday; the SLV rep still wasn't set.)

Also, if the CWCC ever goes the route of the CMCC and uses three regional cups as qualifying, then the NWSLxLMXF summer cup is also of interest here. For the first edition, the six CWCC clubs are almost perfectly distributed among the five groups, with only San Diego and America sharing a group. Our only hope for CWCC preview matches otherwise would be that enough teams qualify for the summer cup semifinals.

 

Barcelona and OL play in CONCACAF?

 

Wrong thread.