The 2019 CONCACAF League (officially the 2019 Scotiabank CONCACAF League for sponsorship purposes) was the third 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]
The tournament was expanded from 16 to 22 teams for the 2019 edition, with the addition of a preliminary round. The six new entrants were five teams from Central America, which had previously directly qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League, and a team from Canada playing in the Canadian Premier League, bringing the total number of teams playing in the CONCACAF League/Champions League from 31 to 32. Moreover, a total of six teams now qualified from the CONCACAF League to the CONCACAF Champions League, meaning that the winners of the 2019 CONCACAF League and the next best five teams qualified for the 2020 CONCACAF Champions League.[2][3]
Saprissa defeated Motagua in the final to win their first CONCACAF League. Herediano were the title holders, but were eliminated by Waterhouse in the Round of 16.
Qualification
A total of 22 teams participated in the CONCACAF League:
The 18 berths for the Central American Football Union (UNCAF), which consisted of seven member associations, were allocated as follows: three berths for each of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, two berths for Nicaragua, and one berth for Belize.
All of the leagues of Central America employed a split season with two tournaments in one season, so the following teams qualified for the CONCACAF League:
In the league of Costa Rica, both champions, and the non-champions with the best aggregate record, qualified. If there was any team which were champions of both tournaments, the non-champions with the second best aggregate record qualified.
In the leagues of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama, both champions, and the runners-up with the better aggregate record (or any team which were runners-up of both tournaments), qualified. If there was any team which were finalists of both tournaments, the runners-up with the worse aggregate record qualified. If there were any two teams which were finalists of both tournaments, the semi-finalists with the best aggregate record qualified.
In the league of Nicaragua, both champions qualified. If there was any team which were champions of both tournaments, the runners-up with the better aggregate record (or any team which were runners-up of both tournaments) qualified.
In the league of Belize, the champions with the better aggregate record (or any team which were champions of both tournaments) qualified.
If teams from any Central American associations were excluded, they were replaced by teams from other Central American associations, with the associations chosen based on results from previous CONCACAF League and CONCACAF Champions League tournaments.[6]
Caribbean
The three berths for the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), which consisted of 31 member associations, were allocated via the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship and CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield, the first-tier and second-tier subcontinental Caribbean club tournaments. Since 2018, the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship was open to teams from professional leagues, where they could qualify as champions or runners-up of their respective association's league in the previous season, while the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield was open to teams from non-professional leagues, where they could qualify as champions of their respective association's league in the previous season.[7]
Besides the champions of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship which qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League, 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, qualified for the CONCACAF League. For the champions of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield to be eligible for the playoff, they had to comply with the minimum CONCACAF Club Licensing requirements for the CONCACAF League.[8]
Teams
The following 22 teams (from eleven associations) qualify for the tournament.
Ten teams enter in the round of 16: two each from Costa Rica, Honduras, and Panama, and one each from El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and the Caribbean.
Twelve teams enter in the preliminary round: two each from El Salvador, Guatemala, and the Caribbean, and one each from Canada, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, and Belize.
Qualified teams from North America (1 team: entering in preliminary round)
The draw determined each tie in the preliminary round (numbered 1 through 6) between a team from Pot 1 and a team from Pot 2, each containing six teams. The "Bracket Position Pots" (Pot A and Pot B) contained the bracket positions numbered 1 through 6 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 preliminary round except for "wildcard" teams which replaced a team from another association.
The draw also determined each tie in the round of 16 (numbered 1 through 8) between a team from Pot 3 and a team from Pot 4, each containing eight teams, with the six preliminary round winners, whose identity was not known at the time of the draw, in Pot 4. 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 3 were assigned a bracket position from Pot A and the teams from Pot 4 were assigned a bracket position from Pot B.
The seeding of teams was based on the CONCACAF Club Index. The CONCACAF Club Index, instead of ranking each team, was based on the on-field performance of the teams that had 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 (2014–15 – 2019)
4
3
1
1
2
CONCACAF League (2017 – 2018)
2
3
1
0.5
1
Teams qualified for the CONCACAF League based on criteria set by their association (e.g., tournament champions, runners-up, cup champions), resulting in an assigned slot (e.g., CRC1, CRC2) for each team.
The 22 teams were distributed in the pots as follows:[13]
HON The identity of the teams qualifying for two of the three slots for Honduras (HON1 and HON2) was not known at the time of the draw.[14] However, as both Motagua and Olimpia were certain to be in Pot 3 for the round of 16 draw, they were included and assigned a bracket position from Pot A by the round of 16 draw.[12]
In the preliminary round, round of 16, quarter-finals, and semi-finals, the away goals rule was applied if the aggregate score was tied after the second leg. If still tied, the penalty shoot-out was used to determine the winner (Regulations II, Article G).[3]
In the final, the away goals rule was not applied, and extra time was 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 H).[3]
Schedule
The schedule of the competition was as follows.[15]
Round
First leg
Second leg
Preliminary round
30 July – 1 August 2019
6–8 August 2019
Round of 16
20–22 August 2019
27–29 August 2019
Quarter-finals
24–26 September 2019
1–3 October 2019
Semi-finals
24 October 2019
31 October 2019
Final
7 November 2019
26 November 2019
Times are Eastern Time, as listed by CONCACAF (local times are in parentheses):[16]
Times up to 2 November 2019 (preliminary round, round of 16, quarter-finals, and semi-finals) are Eastern Daylight Time, i.e., UTC−4.
In the final (Winner SF1 vs. Winner SF2), the finalists which had the better performance in previous rounds (excluding preliminary round) hosted the second leg.
Starting from the round of 16, teams were ranked based on their results (excluding preliminary round) using the following criteria (Regulations II, Article I):[3]
Points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss, except that teams advancing via a penalty shootout were considered to have won the match and thus earned 3 points);
Disciplinary points (1 point for yellow card, 3 points for indirect red card, 4 points for direct red card, 5 points for yellow card and direct red card);
Drawing of lots
Based on the ranking, the top six teams, i.e., champions, runners-up, both losing semi-finalists, and best two losing quarter-finalists, qualified for the 2020 CONCACAF Champions League.[21]
Following their victory in the final, Saprissa players Manfred Ugalde, Michael Barrantes and Johan Venegas (left to right) pose with the Best Young Player, Fair Play Award, Golden Boot and Golden Ball awards, respectively.
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:[23]
^ abRound of 16 home matches of Honduran clubs Olimpia and Motagua were moved from Estadio Tiburcio Carías Andino, Tegucigalpa to Estadio Olímpico Metropolitano, San Pedro Sula, and required by CONCACAF to be played behind closed doors, after incidents before the domestic league match between the two teams on 17 August 2019 at the Estadio Tiburcio Carías Andino.[19]
