MIAMI, Jan 28 - North and Central American soccer
clubs will compete in a European-style Champions League from
August, the region's governing body CONCACAF announced on
Monday.
The 24-team CONCACAF Champions League will replace the old
eight-team, straight knockout Champions Cup.
The league will feature four teams from Mexico and the U.S.,
three Caribbean sides, two clubs each from Costa Rica, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and one representative
coming from Canada, Belize, and Nicaragua.
Eight clubs -- two Mexican, two from the U.S., one each from
Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador -- will be seeded
and the other 16 teams will play a qualifying round for the
group stage of four groups of four.
The last Champions Cup final will be held over two legs
later this year before the region switches to the new format.
(Reporting by Simon Evans; Editing by Alison Wildey)