- Competition will begin play in early April and conclude with a single leg Final in October
- Champion will qualify for the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup
Miami, FL (Thursday, January 28, 2021) – Concacaf has confirmed the draw procedures and pots for the 2021 edition of the Confederation’s flagship club competition, the Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League (SCCL). The made-for-tv live event will take place Wednesday, February 10 at 7:00 pm EST.
Concacaf Director of Competitions, Carlos Fernandez will conduct the draw alongside former Concacaf club champion and Mexican national team player, Enrique Borja, and MLS’s Orlando City SC Head Coach Oscar Pareja.
A number of the club head coaches will also participate virtually in the evening’s event to provide live interviews following the outcome of the draw.
The draw will be widely available for fans across the region to follow and enjoy through the Confederation’s TV partner networks, including FOX Sports (USA-English), TUDN (USA-Spanish), Fox Sports Mexico (Mexico-Spanish), ESPN (Central America-Spanish), TSN and RDS (Canada-English and French), Flow Sports (Caribbean-English) and other local partners.
For other territories, the event will be available on the Official Concacaf App (Apple and Google Play stores), and Concacaf’s Facebook and YouTube pages (all subject to territory restrictions).
Clubs from across the region qualified for the 2021 SCCL through domestic leagues and cup competitions, and the Scotiabank Concacaf League, which qualifies six clubs to the SCCL.
The full list of competing clubs in the 2021 SCCL is as follows:
Canada: Forge FC or Toronto FC (winner of the 2020 Canadian Championship will compete, date TBC)
Costa Rica: Deportivo Saprissa and LD Alajuelense
Dominican Republic: Club Atletico Pantoja
Haiti: Arcahaie FC
Honduras: CD Marathon and CD Olimpia
Mexico: Club América, Club León, Cruz Azul and CF Monterrey
Nicaragua: Real Estelí FC
USA: Atlanta United FC, Columbus Crew SC, Philadelphia Union and Portland Timbers
2021 SCCL Draw Procedures
The official draw will be executed using a double-blind system and four pots. Pots 1 and 2 will contain the spheres with the names of the 16 participating clubs. Pots A and B will contain the spheres with the bracket positions for the Round of 16.
Based on the 2021 SCCL Ranking (more information is available here), clubs will be distributed in Pots 1 and 2 as follows (in alphabetical order by country):
Pot 1 (clubs ranked 1-8): Forge FC or Toronto FC (CAN), CF Monterrey (MEX), Club America (MEX), Cruz Azul (MEX), Atlanta United FC (USA), Columbus Crew SC (USA), Philadelphia Union (USA) and Portland Timbers (USA).
Pot 2 (clubs ranked 9-16): Deportivo Saprissa (CRC), LD Alajuelense (CRC), Club Atletico Pantoja (DOM), Arcahaie FC (HAI), CD Marathon (HON), CD Olimpia (HON), Club Leon (MEX) and Real Esteli FC (NCA).
The Round of 16 bracket positions will be divided in Pots A and B as follows:
Pot A: A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7 and A8.
Pot B: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7 and B8.
The draw will begin by randomly selecting a sphere from Pot 1, followed by a sphere from Pot A to confirm the club’s bracket position. The same process will apply for the remaining clubs in Pot 1, always drawing a club, followed by a bracket position from Pot A.
Once the eight clubs in Pot 1 have been assigned to a matchup, the first sphere from Pot 2 will be randomly drawn, followed by a bracket position sphere from Pot B. The same procedure will apply for all Pot 2 spheres.
At the end of the draw, each Round of 16 matchup will feature one club from each pot and no more than one club from each country, as per competition regulations, clubs from the same country cannot face each other in the Round of 16.
2021 SCCL Schedule
The 2021 SCCL matchups will commence with the Round of 16 between April 6-8 (first leg) and April 13-15 (second leg). The Round of 16 will be followed by home and away quarterfinal matches in late-April and early-May, semifinals in August and September, and a single leg SCCL final in October.
For the round of 16, the highest ranked club in each matchup will play the first leg away and the second leg at home.
For the quarterfinals, the Round of 16 winners of matchups 1, 3, 5 and 7 will play the first leg away and the second leg at home.
For the semifinals, the two best performing clubs in the earlier rounds of the competition will play the first leg away and the second leg at home. The single leg final will be hosted by the best performing club of the two finalists in the earlier rounds of the 2021 SCCL (based on wins, draws and, if required, goal difference).
Round of 16: April 6-8 (first leg) and April 13-15 (second leg)
Quarterfinals: April 27-29 (first leg) and May 4-6 (second leg)
Semifinals: August 10-12 (first leg) and September 14-16 (second leg)
Final: October 26-28 (single leg)
Concacaf will announce a complete schedule, including kickoff times and other details in the coming weeks.
