{"id":275401,"date":"2025-11-11T01:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T01:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/275401\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T01:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T01:51:08","slug":"concacaf-reveals-draw-procedures-for-2026-champions-cup-draw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/275401\/","title":{"rendered":"Concacaf Reveals Draw Procedures for 2026 Champions Cup Draw"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Official draw set for Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025<br \/>\nDraw determines the path of each club to the Final on Saturday, May 30, 2026<br \/>\nFans can follow the live event on Concacaf\u2019s YouTube channel starting at 7 p.m. ET<br \/>\n25 clubs have already qualified for the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup, only two slots remain available<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Miami, FL \u2013 Concacaf has announced the procedures that will govern the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup draw. The draw will determine the tournament\u2019s bracket, setting the stage for the exciting matchups that will shape each participating club\u2019s path to the Final.<\/p>\n<p>The made-for-TV live event, hosted from Miami, FL, will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, and will be widely available for fans around the world through Concacaf\u2019s YouTube channel (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/concacaf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.youtube.com\/concacaf<\/a>) and the Confederation\u2019s TV partner networks.<\/p>\n<p>The 2026 edition of the Concacaf Champions Cup \u2013 the 61st\u00a0in the tournament\u2019s history \u2013 has already seen some of the region&#8217;s top teams secure their places.\u00a0Notably, the field already features Mexican powerhouses Club Am\u00e9rica and CF Monterrey, as well as reigning Champions Cup title holders Cruz Azul; Lionel Messi\u2019s Inter Miami CF and newcomers San Diego FC from Major League Soccer; Costa Rican standouts LD Alajuelense and CS Cartagin\u00e9s, and Honduran giants Club Olimpia from Central America; and Caribbean representatives Mount Pleasant FA of Jamaica and O&amp;M FC of the Dominican Republic, among others.<\/p>\n<p>The Concacaf Champions Cup continues to be played in a direct elimination knockout stage format, composed of five rounds: Round One, Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Final.\u00a0The first four stages each include home and away play, while the Final, where the region\u2019s Champion will be crowned, is played as a single-leg match. Of the 27 clubs that will participate, 22 begin play in Round One and five receive a bye to the Round of 16.<\/p>\n<p>Round One will begin in early February, followed by the Round of 16 in March, the Quarterfinals in April, the Semifinals spanning April and May, and the Final on Saturday, May 30.<\/p>\n<p>Fans worldwide will be able to follow and enjoy the live event on Concacaf\u2019s YouTube channel (www.youtube.com\/concacaf) and through the Confederation&#8217;s TV partner networks in the region.<\/p>\n<p>Fans can also follow updates on the competition\u2019s official social media platforms, including X (@TheChampions), Facebook (facebook.com\/TheChampions), Instagram (@TheChampions) and TikTok (@Concachampions).<br \/>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Based on the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup regulations, qualification criteria, and the\u00a0<a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.concacaf.com\/rankings\/club\/\" target=\"_blank\">Concacaf Club Rankings<\/a>\u00a0as of Dec. 8, 2025, each of the 27 participating clubs will be pre-seeded into a bracket position or placed in a Pot.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Five clubs have received a bye to the Round of 16 and will be pre-seeded into a bracket position, rewarding their sporting merit as champions of the following competitions:<\/p>\n<p>2025 Concacaf Central American Cup champion &#8211; TBD<br \/>\n2025 Concacaf Caribbean Cup champion &#8211; TBD<br \/>\n2025 Leagues Cup champion &#8211; Seattle Sounders FC (USA)<br \/>\n2024\/25 Liga MX champion with the most accumulated points &#8211; Deportivo Toluca FC (MEX)<br \/>\n2025 MLS Cup champion \u2013 TBD<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>These five clubs will be positioned in a Round of 16 bracket position based on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.concacaf.com\/rankings\/club\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Concacaf Club Rankings<\/a>\u00a0as of Dec. 8, 2025, as follows:<\/p>\n<p>Highest-ranked club &#8211; Matchup 1<br \/>\nSecond highest-ranked club &#8211; Matchup 5<br \/>\nThird highest-ranked club &#8211; Matchup 8<br \/>\nFourth highest-ranked club &#8211; Matchup 4<br \/>\nFifth highest-ranked club &#8211; Matchup 2<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For Round One, which includes the participation of 22 clubs, the three highest-ranked clubs will be pre-seeded into a Round One bracket position, and the remaining 19 clubs will be distributed into the two &#8220;Club Pots.&#8221; The three highest-ranked clubs will be seeded to reward their competitive merit and strength, ensuring that they cannot face any club that received a bye to the Champions Cup Round of 16 until later rounds in the competition.<\/p>\n<p>The three highest-ranked Round One clubs, based on the Concacaf Club Rankings as of Dec. 8, 2025, will be pre-seeded into a matchup as follows:<\/p>\n<p>Highest-ranked Round One club &#8211; Position A3<br \/>\nSecond highest-ranked Round One club &#8211; Position A9<br \/>\nThird highest-ranked Round One club &#8211; Position A7<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 19 remaining clubs that will begin play in Round One will be divided into the two &#8220;Club Pots\u201d as follows:<\/p>\n<p>Pot 1: 8 next best-ranked clubs<br \/>\nPot 2: 11 lowest-ranked clubs<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 19 available Round One bracket positions will be divided into the two &#8220;Position Pots\u201d as follows:<\/p>\n<p>Pot A: A1, A2, A4, A5, A6, A8, A10, and A11<br \/>\nPot B: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B8, B9, B10, and B11<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The official draw will begin by confirming the bracket positions for the eight pre-seeded clubs (three in Round One and five in Round of 16). Once confirmed, the draw will start by randomly drawing a sphere from Pot 1, followed by a Round One bracket position sphere from Pot A. This process will be repeated for the remaining seven spheres in Pot 1, always using the available bracket positions in Pot A.<\/p>\n<p>After all Pot 1 clubs have been drawn and assigned a bracket position, the draw for clubs in Pot 2 will begin, following the same procedure using Pot 2 and Pot B. Once all clubs have been assigned a bracket position, the draw will conclude.<\/p>\n<p>Thus far, 25 clubs have secured a berth in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup via three regional cups in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, as well as domestic leagues and cups for Canada, M\u00e9xico, and the United States. These clubs are (in alphabetical order by tournament):<\/p>\n<p>Canadian Championship (1):\u00a0Vancouver FC (CAN)<br \/>\nCanadian Premier League (2):\u00a0Forge FC (CAN) and Atl\u00e9tico Ottawa (CAN)<br \/>\nConcacaf Caribbean Cup (2):\u00a0Mount Pleasant FA (JAM) and O&amp;M FC (DOM)<br \/>\nConcacaf Central American Cup (6):\u00a0Club Olimpia (HON), Club Xelaj\u00fa (GUA), CS Cartagin\u00e9s (CRC), LD Alajuelense (CRC), Real CD Espa\u00f1a (HON) and Sporting San Miguelito (PAN)<br \/>\nLeagues Cup (3):\u00a0Inter Miami CF (USA), LA Galaxy (USA) and Seattle Sounders FC (USA)<br \/>\nLiga MX (6):\u00a0CF Monterrey (MEX), Club Am\u00e9rica (MEX), Cruz Azul (MEX), Deportivo Toluca FC (MEX), Pumas UNAM (MEX) and Tigres UANL (MEX)<br \/>\nMLS (4):\u00a0FC Cincinnati (USA), Philadelphia Union (USA), San Diego FC (USA) and Vancouver Whitecaps FC (CAN)<br \/>\nUS Open Cup (1):\u00a0Nashville SC (USA)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The remaining two participating clubs, which include one Caribbean club (2025 Concacaf Caribbean Cup third-place finisher), and one MLS club (2025 MLS Cup champion), will be confirmed before the official draw.<\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Official draw set for Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025 Draw determines the path of each club to the Final&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-275401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-soccer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}