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English Version: Concacaf

The CONCACAF Champions League is the annual international club football championship for teams from the CONCACAF region (North America, Central America, and the Caribbean). The competition is open to the leading teams in the region and replaced the CONCACAF Champions' Cup, which ran from 1962 to 2008. The winner earns a berth in the following year's FIFA Club World Cup, which pits each continental confederation's champion against the others annually.

Founded	1962 (2008 in its current format)
Region	North America, Central America, Caribbean (CONCACAF)
Number of teams	16 (Group stage) 24 (Total)
Current champions	Pachuca (4th title)
Most successful club	Cruz Azul América (5 titles each)
Website	CONCACAF

The competition's former format, called the Champions' Cup, had eight teams competing - four from the North American zone (two from Mexico, two from the United States/Canada), three from the Central American zone, and one from the Caribbean zone. Since 2005, the champion of the competition also gained entry into the FIFA Club World Cup, giving clubs an added incentive for a strong participation and greater interest from fans. Also the Champions' Cup Runner-up would be one of the three CONCACAF invitees to the Copa Sudamericana.

The CONCACAF Executive Committee at their 2006 November meeting decided to "act upon" a proposal at their next meeting by the CONCACAF Secretariat to develop the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup into a larger “Champions League” style event. The CONCACAF Executive Committee reported on November 14, 2007 some of the details.[1] The previous Champions' Cup format was used as planned in the Spring of 2008. Then, a newly expanded Champions League tournament was conducted starting in August 2008 and concluding in May 2009. The setup involves 24 teams initially and features a Preliminary Round contested by some of the teams to reduce the field to 16 teams, which are separated into 4 groups of four teams.[1][2] After the Group Stage, the Championship Round are held from the Quarterfinal Round onward.
[edit] Qualifying

The new format will feature 24 teams in total.

From the North American Zone:

4 clubs from Mexico Mexico
4 clubs from the United States United States
1 club from Canada Canada

From the Central American Zone:

2 clubs from Costa Rica Costa Rica
2 clubs from El Salvador El Salvador
2 clubs from Guatemala Guatemala
2 clubs from Honduras Honduras
2 clubs from Panama Panama
1 club from Nicaragua Nicaragua
1 club from Belize Belize