CONCACAF Champions League 101: What you need to know about the continent's premier club competition

The home stretch of the 2016 campaign is upon Sporting Kansas City, and with a pivotal stretch of regular season games comes an equally important quartet of matches in the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League. The club’s journey in the continental tournament — which features the best clubs from North America, Central America and the Caribbean — begins Tuesday with a lengthy trip to Central FC in Trinidad and Tobago. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. CT with a live stream on CONCACAF's official Facebook page and a Spanish telecast on Univision Deportes.

Before Sporting Kansas City embarks on its Champions League quest, we’ve got all the answers to your questions about CONCACAF’s premier club competition.

What is the CONCACAF Champions League?

The CONCACAF Champions League is an international tournament comprised of the region’s best teams. The 2016-17 edition is the ninth under its current name and the 52nd installment of CONCACAF’s elite club competition since its founding in 1962.

The current field consists of 24 teams from 12 different countries, as follows: four clubs each from the United States and Mexico; two clubs each from Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, El Salvador and Trinidad and Tobago; and one club from Canada, Nicaragua, Belize and Haiti. Do the math, and you have 24 contestants battling it out for CONCACAF glory.

How did Sporting KC qualify for the Champions League?

Peter Vermes’ men punched their ticket via the 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup championship. Sporting Kansas City ousted the Philadelphia Union in a gripping penalty shootout following a 1-1 draw last September to ensure their return to the Champions League following a one-year absence.

Four CONCACAF Champions League berths are allocated to U.S. clubs every year. One bid goes to each of the following:

• The MLS Cup champion
• The first-place finisher in the Eastern Conference (regular season)
• The first-place finisher in the Western Conference (regular season)
• The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup champion

If a Canadian club or any U.S. club qualifies for the Champions League by more than one method, the berth is awarded to the American team with the best MLS regular season record which failed to qualify otherwise.

Who are the other Champions League teams from MLS?

Sporting Kansas City is one of five MLS representatives in the 2016-17 tournament. The others are the Portland Timbers (2015 MLS Cup champion), New York Red Bulls (2015 first-place finisher in the East), FC Dallas (2015 first-place finisher in the West) and Vancouver Whitecaps FC (2015 Amway Canadian Championship winner). Note that Canada is allocated a separate Champions League spot each year, secured by the Canadian Championship winner.

What is the tournament format of the Champions League?

Sporting Kansas City begins play in Group C on Tuesday. The group stage divides the 24 teams into eight groups of three and is contested in a round-robin, home-and-away, four-game format that runs from August through October.

The eight group winners with then advance to the knockout round, a single-elimination format which begins with the two-legged quarterfinals in February and March 2017. The two-legged semifinals and finals are tentatively scheduled for March, April and May 2017.

The qualified teams in the knockout stage are seeded 1-8 based on their group stage results. The higher-seeded team will host the second leg, and the away goals rule is used if the aggregate score is tied through two games. If still tied, the teams will enter a penalty shootout to decide the winner.

Why does the Champions League matter?

Imagine Sporting Kansas City squaring off against the likes of FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Boca Juniors. It’s the stuff dreams are made of, and these dreams can be realized if Sporting Kansas City wins the Champions League.

How so? The 2016-17 CONCACAF Champions League winner will book a spot in the 2017 FIFA Club World Cup, an international tournament held from Dec. 6-16 in the United Arab Emirates that features winners of the 2016-17 UEFA Champions League and the 2017 Copa Libertadores. Lifting the CONCACAF Champions League title would thrust Sporting Kansas City onto the international scene like never before.

Then there’s bragging rights. Mexican clubs have dominated the competition in recent years, winning all eight tournament under the current format since 2008-09. Sporting Kansas City has the chance to become the first MLS club to lift the CCL title, and doing so would arguably be the greatest achievement in club history.

Lastly, there's a big, big monetary reward. CONCACAF announced in June that a prize money pool of $1.2 million will be doled out to the semifinalists for the 2016-17 tournament. The winning team will earn $500,000, with the runner-up earning $300,000 and the other two semifinalists taking home $200,000 each. No small chunk of change.

What do we know about Central FC?

Sporting Kansas City’s first opponent in Group C has enjoyed tremendous success since its founding in 2012. The Central FC Sharks are back-to-back champions of the TT Pro League (Trinidad and Tobago’s domestic league) and the CFU Club Championship, a tournament contested by the best clubs from the Caribbean Football Union.

Central FC dropped its Champions League opener on Aug. 2, a 1-0 home defeat to Vancouver Whitecaps FC at Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva, Trinidad and Tobago. The Sharks don’t begin their domestic campaign in the TT Pro League until mid-September, making their task in Group C all the more difficult.

The Central FC roster includes eight players who have earned at least one cap for the Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Team over the last 12 months. The Sharks’ big-name player is Kenwyne Jones, a 31-year-old striker on loan from 2017 MLS expansion team Atlanta United FC. Jones wears the captain’s armband for Trinidad and Tobago, having featured prominently in the English Premier League for most of the last decade with Southampton, Sunderland and Stoke City among others.

What do we know about Vancouver Whitecaps FC?

A whole lot. Sporting Kansas City and Vancouver will have met five times by mid-September, three of which in the MLS regular season and two in CCL. The sides are already amidst a fierce battle for a playoff spot, and now there’s a spot in the Champions League knockout stages up for grabs. Make no mistake: the Group C winner will more than likely be one of these two teams, as Central FC is considered the underdog among its MLS counterparts.

Sporting KC is 5-1-3 all-time against Vancouver, including a current four-game unbeaten streak since the start of 2015. Vermes’ side won the first meeting 2-1 on March 12 at Children’s Mercy Park before earning a 1-1 draw at BC Place on April 27. It's worth noting that Vancouver is on a three-game losing streak in league play, having taken just two points from their last five matches. Carl Robinson's side has slipped to eight place in the Western Conference, two points adrift the sixth and final playoff spot.

What is Sporting KC’s CCL schedule, and how can I watch?

*Tape delay to air Aug. 24 at 1 a.m. CT