The 1996 CONCACAF Champions' Cup was the 32nd edition of the annual international club football competition held in the

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...

region (North America, Central America and the Caribbean), the

CONCACAF Champions' Cup The CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly known as CONCACAF Champions League (2008–2023), is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America, a ...

. It determined that year's club champion of

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

in the

region and was played from 9 March 1996 through 20 July 1997. The teams were split into 2 zones (North/ Central and Caribbean). The North/Central zone was split into 3 groups, qualifying each winner to the final tournament. The winner of the Caribbean zone, earned a place in a playoff against the U.S. representative for a spot in the final tournament. All qualifying matches in the tournament were played under the home/away match system, while the final tournament was played in

Guatemala City Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...

. That final stage composed of four teams which played each other in a single

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

. Mexican team

Cruz Azul Club de Futbol Cruz Azul S.A. de C.V., commonly referred to as Cruz Azul, is a professional association football, football club based in Mexico City, Mexico. It competes in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football league system, Mexican footba ...

won their fourth CONCACAF trophy, after finishing 1st. in the final table with 7 points over 3 matches played.

North/Central American Zone

Group 1

First Round

on bye to the Third round. * ''Alajuelense won 6–3 on aggregated.'' ---- * ''Árabe Unido won 2–1 on aggregated.'' ---- * ''Victoria won 7–3 on aggregated.'' Second Round
Alajuelense on bye to the Fourth round. * ''Victoria won 3–2 on aggregated.'' Third Round * ''Cruz Azul won 2–1 on aggregated.'' Fourth Round * ''Cruz Azul won 5–2 on aggregated.''

Group 2

First Round * ''

Necaxa Impulsora del Deportivo Necaxa S.A. de C.V. (); often simply known as Club Necaxa, is a Mexican professional Association football, football club based in Aguascalientes (city), Aguascalientes. It competes in Liga MX, the top division of Mexican ...

on bye to second round.'' Second Round * ''

advanced to the CONCACAF Final Group stage.''

Group 3

First Round * '' Juventus F.C. on bye, to the second round.'' Second Round * '' Juventus F.C. on bye, to the third round.'' Third Round *''CSD Comunicaciones advance to the Final Group stage.''

Caribbean Zone

First round

*''US Sinnamary withdrew after 1st leg*'' *''Red Star withdrew before 1st leg**''

Second round

*''SV Transvaal advance to the USA/Caribbean playoff.''

U.S./Caribbean Playoff

*''Seattle Sounders advance to the Final Group stage.''

Final group stage

Final stage was played in

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

. July 15–20, 1997.

Matches

All the games played in

: ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Champion

References

{{CONCACAF Champions' Cup CONCACAF Champions Cup seasons 1