Los Angeles (USA), October 6 (EFE). The League Cup, a new official tournament in which all MLS and Liga MX teams will face each other, will take place from July 21 to August 19, 2023 in the United States and Canada.
MLS, Liga MX and Concacaf gave some details of this tournament in a statement on Thursday as there will be 47 teams and three places in the Concacaf Champions League at stake.
The League Cup will be played taking advantage of the summer break in MLS and Liga MX and there will be 77 matches.
Two teams will advance directly to the Round of 32: the MLS Cup winner and in Liga MX the other two champions, Apertura and Clausura with the most points in 2022.
These two teams will not participate in the group stage, which will feature 45 teams divided into 15 groups of three.
Each group will have at least one Liga MX team and the distribution will take into account each group’s ranking in their respective league.
Each team will play two matches and the best two teams from each group advance to the Round of 32.
One of the most interesting developments in the League Cup is that there will be no draws like this during the group stage.
Thus, if the match ends in a draw, each team will get a point but there will also be penalties, and the winner will get an extra point.
In addition, the top three winners of the league club (champion, runner-up, and third-place match winner) will qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League.
“As part of the multi-year partnership between MLS and Apple, fans around the world will be able to watch the entire League Cup through the Apple TV app,” the statement said.
“There has never been anything quite like the League Cup in major professional sports on this continent or anywhere else,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said.
“We believe that the tournament will help raise the profile of CONCACAF around the world,” he said.
For his part, Liga MX CEO Mikel Areola defended that the League Cup would be a “before and after in history not only for the sport in our region but in world football”.
“For Liga MX, it means getting close to our large and growing fans in the US for a month as well as opening international windows so that our clubs and players can show the world their talents and their commitment to excellence,” he added.
