The Leagues Cup is an annual

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

competition between clubs from

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

and Liga MX in North America. It debuted in July 2019 with four teams participating from each league. The first edition was a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final mat ...

hosted in the United States with a final played in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...

on September 18, 2019. Beginning in 2023, the tournament will be expanded to include all clubs from MLS and Liga MX, and will function as the regional cup for the North American zone within CONCACAF, with the top three teams qualifying for the

CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Amer ...

Format

The 2019 edition of Leagues Cup featured four clubs from each league in an eight-team single-elimination knockout tournament, with the first two rounds hosted by the MLS club. The participating MLS teams in the first edition were invitees, but later editions are planned to use league results for qualification; the four Liga MX participants were chosen based on their league results. The quarterfinals were played on July 23–24 and the semifinals were played on August 20. The first final was played on September 18 at

Sam Boyd Stadium Sam Boyd Stadium (formerly the Las Vegas Silver Bowl) is a football stadium in the western United States, located in Whitney, Nevada, an unincorporated community in the Las Vegas Valley. It honors Sam Boyd (1910–1993), a major figure in the ...

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...

. Beginning with the 2023 edition, the Leagues Cup will include all MLS and Liga MX teams—47 teams in total with 77 matches hosted in the United States and Canada. The top 15 teams from each league will be seeded into 15 groups based on their league standings from the previous season, while the remaining teams are drawn based on geographic proximity. The group stage will have three matches in a round-robin format and the top two teams qualify for the knockout stage. Two teams will also receive byes to the knockout stage: the reigning MLS Cup champion and highest-ranked Liga MX champion from either the previous Clausura and Apertura. The knockout stage will be single-elimination on a fixed bracket.

History

Major League Soccer and Liga MX clubs had previously played in the North American SuperLiga, which ran from 2007 to 2010. Both leagues also send clubs to the

, which has been dominated by Mexican clubs, and the

Campeones Cup The Campeones Cup is an annual North American association football match contested between the winners of the previous MLS Cup from Major League Soccer and the winners of the Campeón de Campeones from Liga MX. The competition was established by ...

, a single match played between the winners of the MLS Cup and the Campeón de Campeones. The two leagues began planning a bi-national, eight-team competition to complement the Champions League and provide Mexican clubs with matches to replace the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

in their calendar as soon as 2018. MLS and Liga MX announced a new partnership in March 2018 to create the Campeones Cup and explore options for other bi-national competitions between their clubs. The Leagues Cup tournament was announced on May 29, 2019, featuring eight teams in its inaugural edition to be played during the summer. The announcement of the tournament was panned by soccer critics in the United States, who called it a meaningless friendly and "cash-grab" for American clubs. The MLS Players Association also expressed concerns over the tournament's creation on the basis of schedule congestion during the summertime.

was later announced as the host venue for the final and a broadcasting contract for the tournament was awarded to

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

and TUDN (formerly Univision Deportes Network). This event was also televised on

TSN TSN may refer to: Science and technology * Translin, DNA binding protein involved in microRNA function * Taxonomic serial number, a stable and unique taxonomic serial number issued by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System * The Science Netwo ...

and TVA Sports in Canada and Televisa in Mexico. In July 2019, MLS and Liga MX announced that the second edition of the Leagues Cup in 2020 would feature 16 teams—eight from each league. The MLS participants would be drawn from the top four teams in each conference that do not qualify for the

; the Liga MX participants would include the 2019 Apertura champion, 2020 Clausura champion, the 2019–20 Copa MX champion, and the next five best-placed teams in the league. The tournament was canceled on May 19, 2020, amid the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. The eight-team format debuted in the

2021 Leagues Cup The 2021 Leagues Cup was the second edition of the Leagues Cup organized by Major League Soccer and the Mexican Football Federation. The tournament was originally planned to include sixteen teams but was later reduced to eight teams. The 2020 ...

, which was played in August and September. In the final at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Mexican club León defeated

Seattle Sounders FC Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club was established on November 13, 2007, and began ...

, the first American finalist in the competition's history. On April 14, 2022, MLS and Liga MX announced the

2022 Leagues Cup Showcase The 2022 Leagues Cup Showcase was a friendly edition of the Leagues Cup, an annual soccer competition between clubs from Major League Soccer and Liga MX in North America. The event featured five matches between MLS and Liga MX sides, played i ...

, to be held on August 3, 2022, at

SoFi Stadium SoFi Stadium () is a 70,240-seat sports and entertainment indoor stadium in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California, United States. SoFi occupies the former site of the Hollywood Park Racetrack, from Los Angeles International Airport ...

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. The city is in the South Bay ...

. The event will be a doubleheader of matches:

LA Galaxy LA Galaxy, also known as the Los Angeles Galaxy, are an American professional soccer club based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Galaxy competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), as a member of the Western Conference. The club began pla ...

against C.D. Guadalajara and Los Angeles FC against Club América. On June 30, 2022, it was announced that the Leagues Cup Showcase would expand to include three more matches—

FC Cincinnati Football Club Cincinnati, commonly known as FC Cincinnati, is an American professional soccer club based in Cincinnati. The club plays in the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The team succeeded the lower-division team of the ...

against C.D. Guadalajara at TQL Stadium in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...

;

Nashville SC Nashville Soccer Club is a Major League Soccer team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The team began play in the league in 2020 as a continuation of the USL club of the same name and plays its home matches at Geodis Park. It is principally owned ...

against Club América at Geodis Park in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

, on September 21; and

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake, often shortened to RSL, is an American professional soccer franchise based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes as a member club of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Western Conference. RSL began play in ...

against

Atlas F.C. Atlas Fútbol Club () is a Mexican professional football club based in Guadalajara, Jalisco that currently plays in Liga MX. It plays home matches at the Estadio Jalisco. Founded in 1916, Atlas has won three league titles and four domestic cups ...

at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, on September 22. The events will serve as a one-time replacement of the previously-planned 2022 Leagues Cup which will not be held due to fixture congestion from the 2022 FIFA World Cup and other factors. Starting from the expanded

in 2024, the Leagues Cup will be used as a qualification tournament for teams from North America, with the winner qualifying for the Round of 16. The 2023 Leagues Cup will be contested by all MLS and Liga MX clubs, during a month-long pause in their respective seasons, with three Champions League berths awarded to the finalists and third-place finisher.

Trophy

The Leagues Cup trophy was unveiled in September 2019 and consists of a silver bowl atop a pedestal. It is in height and wide. A replica trophy will be gifted to the winners following 12 months with the original trophy.

Finals

Performances

By club

References

{{Leagues Cup International club association football competitions in North America Recurring sporting events established in 2019 Major League Soccer Liga MX