The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) has announced the procedures for the official draw of the 2019 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League, which will take place Monday at 6 p.m. CT at the Univision Deportes Studios in Miami.
The 11th edition of the region’s premier club championship will feature representatives from nine Concacaf Member Associations. Sporting Kansas City is one of five MLS clubs set to participate in the annual competition, having qualified for the tournament as the 2017 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup champion.
Fans will be able to follow all the action through the Confederation’s partner networks, including Univision Deportes and Yahoo Sports in the United States.
The 15 clubs that have qualified for the 2019 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League are (in alphabetical order): Alianza FC (SLV), Atlanta United FC (USA), Atletico Pantoja (DOM), CD Guastatoya (GUA), CD Marathon (HON), CF Monterrey (MEX), Club Atletico Independiente (PAN), Club Deportivo Toluca (MEX), CS Herediano (CRC), Deportivo Saprissa (CRC), Houston Dynamo (USA), Santos Laguna (MEX), Sporting Kansas City (USA), Tigres UANL (MEX) and Toronto FC (CAN).
More information on how clubs qualify for the tournament is available here.
Draw Procedures
The draw, to be executed by Concacaf Chief Football Officer Manolo Zubiria, with the assistance of a range of former stars from across the Confederation, will use a double-blind system involving four pots: two “Club Pots” and two “Bracket Position Pots”. The two “Club Pots” will each contain eight of the participating clubs, while the two “Bracket Position Pots” will contain the 16 possible positions for the participating clubs.
Based on the 2019 Concacaf Champions League Club Index, which ranks clubs based on the performance of the countries over the last five seasons of play in the competition, the clubs will be distributed in the "Club Pots" as follows (in alphabetical order):
Pot 1: CF Monterrey (MEX), Club Deportivo Toluca (MEX), Santos Laguna (MEX), Tigres UANL (MEX), Toronto FC (CAN), Houston Dynamo (USA), USA 1 and USA 4
Pot 2: Alianza FC (SLV), Atletico Pantoja (DOM), CD Guastatoya (GUA), CD Marathon (HON), Club Atletico Independiente (PAN), CS Herediano (CRC), Deportivo Saprissa (CRC), and Sporting Kansas City (USA).
More information on the 2019 Concacaf Champions League Club Index is available here.
The “Bracket Position Pots” (A and B) will contain the bracket positions as follows:
Pot A: A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8
Pot B: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B8
The draw will begin when the first club is selected from Pot 1, followed by a bracket position from Pot A. Once the position for all the clubs from Pot 1 has been drawn, using Pot A, clubs from Pot 2 will be drawn using the same procedure and Pot B. Each first round pairing will feature one team from each pot. Additionally, clubs from the same Member Association cannot face each other in the first round.
For the Round of 16, clubs drawn from Pot 1 will play away first, and host the return matches. The winners of matchups number 1, 3, 5 and 7, will host the return leg of the quarterfinals and will face the winners of matchups 2, 4, 6 and 8, respectively.
For the semifinals, the initial bracket will determine the matchups. Additionally, clubs will be ranked per their performance in the round of 16 and the quarterfinals, using the competition’s tie-breaking procedure. The highest ranked club in each semifinal matchup will host the second leg matches. The same aggregate performance procedure will be applied to determine who will host the second leg Final.
