Concacaf Champions League: Concacaf announces the expansion of the Concacaf league and the change of method of qualification of the CCL

Teams from Central America will have to prove it on the field if they want to qualify for the Concacaf Champions League.

The confederation announced Monday a change in the qualifying procedure for the regional championship clubs, as well as an extension of its secondary tournament, the Concacaf League.

All teams from Central America, even those previously qualified directly for the Champions League, will now go through the Concacaf League to get to the marquee tournament. In addition to the winner of Concacaf League, five other teams from this tournament will qualify for the Champions League.

While this may prevent a country's teams from qualifying for CCL, this could also lead to more places for a given league. Costa Rica has two teams in the CCL 2019, Saprissa qualifying as the champion with the best record in short tournaments and Herediano in the tournament as the winner of the Concacaf 2018 League. However, three Costa Rican teams could qualify for the Top five league Concacaf 2019 based on performance and qualify for the 2020 Champions League.

The expansion of Concacaf League will see the tournament add a preliminary round with 12 clubs playing a series of home and away matches. Among the teams participating in this round, there will be the champion of the new Canadian Premier League. This year's Canadian participant will be determined according to a procedure that will be announced in the coming days by the CPL and the Canadian Soccer Association, according to Goal sources.

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The cumulative winners of these clashes will advance to round 16 where the champion of each Central American league plus another team from the top leagues Costa Rica, Panama and Honduras, as well as the finalists of the Caribbean Club Championship will be waiting for them.

As in other Concacaf tournaments, teams will be ranked during the tournament based on performance. The top five teams will qualify for the CCA with the champion. The two lowest ranked quarter-finals will be left out.

The new CCA nomination will see four MLS teams, four Liga MX teams, the Canadian champion and the Caribbean Club championship winner qualify, in addition to the six teams from the Concacaf League.