Concacaf renames men’s club championship, dramatically boosts prize pool
The Seattle Sounders will officially go down in history as the only MLS team to win the Concacaf Champions League after the regional organizing body announced plans to rename the tournament the “Concacaf Champions Cup” on Tuesday.
The new name accompanies a previously announced expanded format that will begin in 2024 with 27 teams. Also part of the announcement was a significant boost to the prize pool, which was increased to $5 million. That’s more than five times as much as was distributed during the most recent CCL.
The first four rounds of the revamped tournament will feature two-legged, home-and-home series just as they have in previous tournaments. Unlike the current format, the final will played as a single game on a weekend. At least five and as many as 10 MLS teams can potentially qualify for the tournament.
The name change is also a recognition that the “league” name no longer made sense. The region’s club championship tournament had been previously called the CONCACAF Champions Cup from 1962-2008 when it was played in a similar format to what it is now. Two MLS teams (D.C. United and the LA Galaxy) won that format.
The tournament was rebranded to the CONCACAF Champions League when a group stage was introduced in 2008-09 and that name stuck even after the group stage was eliminated for the 2018 tournament. Six MLS teams made the final during the CCL era, but Seattle will end up as the only team to have won it.
Source: Sounder At Heart
