Every team from MLS and LIGA MX, the top division in Mexico, will compete in a month-long tournament starting in 2023.
The top three finishers in the tournament, the Leagues Cup, will earn berths to next year’s CONCACAF Champions League.
Both leagues will go hiatus for one summer month during the tournament.
The format of the tournament will start with groups and then move to knockout rounds.
Additionally, the Champions League will expand in the spring of 2024 to 27 teams, with 22 teams entering in the first round, and five more entering at the round-of-16 stage.
Atlanta United has competed three times in the Champions League. It has advanced past its first round all three times. It was eliminated by Mexican powers Monterrey in 2019, Club America in 2020 and Philadelphia in 2021.
The new Champions League will have the following format:
Round one:
- Four MLS clubs
- Two Leagues Cup clubs (runner-up and third-place team)
- Five Liga MX clubs
- Two Canadian Premier League clubs
- One U.S. Open Cup winner
- One Canadian Championship winner
- Five Central America Cup clubs (runner-up, two losing semifinalists and two play-in winners)
- Two Caribbean Cup (second-place and third-place finishers)
Round of 16:
- One MLS Cup winner
- One Leagues Cup winner
- One Liga MX winner
- One Central American Cup winner
- One Caribbean Cup winner
The first round, the round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals will be contested as home-and-away series. The final will be a one-off game.
The new tournament will result in very busy schedules for teams starting in 2023. The MLS season is 34 games, not including playoffs. The Leagues Cup will be at least three games and as many as eight. The U.S. Open Cup is at least one game. And some teams will compete in the Champions League.
In 2024, there will be those games plus the possibility of at least two games, and as many as nine, in the Champions League.
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