The 2018 CONCACAF League (officially the 2018 Scotiabank CONCACAF League for sponsorship purposes) was the second edition of the CONCACAF League, a football club competition organized by CONCACAF, the regional governing body of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.[1]
Olimpia
were the title holders, but did not qualify for this tournament and were unable to defend their title, and consequently their streak of participating in all ten editions of the CONCACAF Champions League since 2008 ended.
Qualification
A total of 16 teams participate in the CONCACAF League:
Central American Zone: 13 teams (from six associations; ordinarily from seven associations, but Guatemalan teams were excluded from this season's tournament)
Caribbean Zone: 3 teams (from two or three associations)
Therefore, teams from either 8 or 9 out of the 41 CONCACAF member associations may participate in the CONCACAF League.
Central America
The 13 berths for the Central American Football Union (UNCAF) are allocated to the seven UNCAF member associations as follows: two berths for each of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and Nicaragua, and one berth for Belize.
All of the leagues of Central America employ a split season with two tournaments in one season, so the following teams qualify for the CONCACAF League:
In the league of Costa Rica, the champions with the worse aggregate record, and the non-champions with the best aggregate record, qualify. If there is any team which are champions of both tournaments, the non-champions with the second best aggregate record qualify.
, the champions with the worse aggregate record, and the runners-up with the better aggregate record (or any team which are runners-up of both tournaments), qualify. If there is any team which are finalists of both tournaments, the runners-up with the worse aggregate record qualify. If there are any two teams which are finalists of both tournaments, the semi-finalists with the best aggregate record qualify.
In the league of
Nicaragua
, both champions qualify. If there is any team which are champions of both tournaments, the runners-up with the better aggregate record (or any team which are runners-up of both tournaments) qualify.
In the league of Belize, the champions with the better aggregate record (or any team which are champions of both tournaments) qualify.
If teams from any Central American associations are excluded, they are replaced by teams from other Central American associations, with the associations chosen based on results from previous CONCACAF League and CONCACAF Champions League tournaments. For this season, the two teams from Guatemala were excluded due to the suspension of their federation by FIFA and were replaced by an additional team each from Costa Rica and Panama.[3]
Caribbean
The three berths for the
CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield, the first-tier and second-tier subcontinental Caribbean club tournaments. Since 2018, the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship is open to teams from professional leagues, and the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield is open to teams from non-professional leagues. To qualify for the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship, teams have to finish as the champions or runners-up of their respective association's league in the previous season, while to qualify for the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield, teams have to finish as the champions of their respective association's league in the previous season.[4]
The runners-up and third-placed team of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship, and the winners of a playoff between the fourth-placed team of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship and the champions of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield, qualify for the CONCACAF League. For the champions of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield to be eligible for the playoff, they must comply with the minimum CONCACAF Club Licensing requirements for the CONCACAF League.[5]
Teams
The following 16 teams (from eight associations) qualified for the tournament.
Government of Guatemala. Until the suspension is lifted, Guatemalan teams are not permitted to participate in international competitions.[6] CONCACAF set the deadline of 31 March 2018 for the suspension to be lifted in order for Guatemalan teams to participate in the 2018 CONCACAF League,[7] and confirmed on 18 May 2018 that Guatemalan teams were expelled after the federation failed to be reinstated by FIFA.[3]
The two Guatemalan teams which would have qualified for the CONCACAF League were:
Antigua GFC, champions with better aggregate record in 2017–18 season (2017 Apertura champions), would have qualified directly to the Champions League. As a result, the two vacated berths were replaced by teams from Costa Rica (Santos de Guápiles) and Panama (Tauro), all entering the CONCACAF League as "wild card" teams, based on the performance of the Central American associations in the last five years, giving Costa Rica and Panama three berths each. Guatemala were ultimately reinstated by FIFA on 1 June 2018, and it was decided that the representative of Guatemala in the 2019 CONCACAF Champions League would be decided by a two-legged playoff between Antigua GFC and Guastatoya.[8]
Location of teams of the 2018 CONCACAF League Central American Zone
Caribbean Zone
The draw for the 2018 CONCACAF League was held on 23 May 2018, 19:00 EDT (UTC−4), at the Pullman Hotel in Miami.[9][10]
The draw determined each tie in the round of 16 (numbered 1 through 8) between a team from Pot 1 and a team from Pot 2, each containing eight teams. The "Bracket Position Pots" (Pot A and Pot B) contained the bracket positions numbered 1 through 8 corresponding to each tie. The teams from Pot 1 were assigned a bracket position from Pot A and the teams from Pot 2 were assigned a bracket position from Pot B. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other in the round of 16 except for "wildcard" teams which replaced a team from another association.
The seeding of teams were based on the CONCACAF Club Index. Each team qualified for the CONCACAF League based on criteria set by the respective associations (e.g., tournament champions, runners-up, cup champions), resulting in an assigned slot (e.g., CRC2, CRC3) for each team. The CONCACAF Club Index, instead of ranking each team, was based on the on-field performance of the teams that have occupied the respective qualifying slots in the previous five editions of the CONCACAF League and CONCACAF Champions League. To determine the total points awarded to a slot in any single edition of the CONCACAF League or CONCACAF Champions League, CONCACAF used the following formula:
Points per
Participation
Win
Draw
Stage advanced
Champions
CONCACAF Champions League (2013–14 – 2018)
4
3
1
1
2
CONCACAF League (2017)
2
3
1
0.5
1
The 16 teams were distributed in the pots as follows:[11]
In the round of 16, quarter-finals, and semi-finals, the away goals rule would be applied if the aggregate score was tied after the second leg. If still tied, the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner (Regulations II, Article F).[2]
In the final, the away goals rule would not be applied, and
extra time would be played if the aggregate score was tied after the second leg. If the aggregate score was still tied after extra time, the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner (Regulations II, Article G).[2]
Schedule
The schedule of the competition was as follows.
First leg
Second leg
Round of 16
31 July – 2 August 2018
7–9 August 2018
Quarter-finals
21–23 August 2018
28–30 August 2018
Semi-finals
18–20 September 2018
25–27 September 2018
Final
23–25 October 2018
30 October – 1 November 2018
All times are Eastern Daylight Time, i.e., UTC−4, as listed by CONCACAF (local times are in parentheses).
Yendrick Ruiz
Motagua
Jamaica
Martinique
