The Central American Cup ( es, Copa Centroamericana) is an upcoming annual continental club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

competition to be organized by CONCACAF. It will be contested by clubs from Central America and serve as that region's qualifying tournament to

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 Ameri ...

. On 21 September 2021 CONCACAF announced plans for an expansion of the Champions League tournament from 16 to 27 teams beginning in 2024. As part of the restructuring, regional qualification tournaments will be held for teams from

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, Central America, and the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

beginning in 2023. The Central American Cup will replace CONCACAF League as the sole method of qualification to Champions League for teams from Central America.

Format

The tournament will be divided into a group phase and a knockout phase. In the first phase, the 20 teams will be divided into four groups of five. Teams will play one game against each team in their group and the top-two teams in each group will advance to the knockout phase. The knockout phase will consist of four rounds plus a play-in round for the losers of the quarterfinals. The two play-in round winners and the four quarterfinal winners qualify for the

. The winner of the Central American Cup will receive a first round bye and qualify directly to the Champions League Round of 16.

Qualification

A total of 20 teams representing all seven

Central American Football Union The Unión Centroamericana de Fútbol (Central American Football Union), more commonly known by the acronym UNCAF, represents the national football teams of Central America: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Pa ...

members will qualify based on the results of their domestic league seasons. The qualification criteria for 18 of the berths is as follows: *3 clubs from

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

*3 clubs from

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

*3 clubs from

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

*3 clubs from

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

*3 clubs from Panama *2 clubs from Nicaragua *1 club from Belize For the 2023 edition, Costa Rica and Honduras will be awarded an extra slot by having clubs reach the finals of the

2022 CONCACAF League The 2022 CONCACAF League (officially the 2022 Scotiabank CONCACAF League for sponsorship purposes) will be the sixth and final edition of the CONCACAF League, a football club competition organized by CONCACAF, the regional governing body of North ...

. Distribution of the final two slots in future years is to be determined.

Format

Qualification

See also

References