A total of 191 teams from all 40 CONCACAF member associations, and 22 invitee associations geographically located in Noth America are expected to participate in the 2017–18 CONCACAF SuperLiga. The association ranking based on the CONCACAF country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[1]
Associations 1–43 each have three teams qualify.
Associations 44–50 each have two teams qualify.
Associations 52–54 each have two teams qualify.
Associations 55–62 each have one team qualify.
Moreover, five teams qualify based on CONCACAF Fair Play ranking, which is measured by association clubs that have the highest displinary scores. The top five associations send a team with the best domestic fair play ranking that has not already qualified for North American competitions.
For the 2016–17 CONCACAF SuperLiga, the associations are allocated places according to their 2015 CONCACAF country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in North American competitions from 2010–11 to 2014–15. In this scenario, the island territories of the Crasqui Islands, Culebra, Vieques are allowed to submit their domestic cup winner, since there is no formal league.
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
(CL) – Additional berth for Champions League participants
(FP) – Additional berth for Fair Play/Invitee participants
Acadiana (ADA): On May 1, 2017, the Falkland Islands Football Association withdrew their provisional status from CONCACAF competitions, citing travel concerns. On June 1, 2017, the American cultural region of Acadiana received provisional status to send local teams to the Champions League and SuperLiga.
Guatemala (GUA): On October 28, 2016, FIFA suspended the National Football Federation of Guatemala for political interference by the Government of Guatemala. Until the suspension is lifted, Guatemalan teams are not permitted to participate in international competitions. CONCACAF set the deadline of May 1, 2017 for the suspension to be lifted, and expelled all Guatemalan teams from the tournament on May 4, 2017 after the federation failed to be reinstated by FIFA. The three vacated spots were replaced by two invitee spots and the next highest Fair Play winner.
Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
CW: Cup winners
2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position
P-W: End-of-season North American competition play-offs winners
NOTE: The following list of qualified teams is provisional, subject to final confirmation by CONCACAF in June 2017, as each participating team must obtain a CONCACAF club license. All qualified teams are included in this list as long as they have not been banned by CONCACAF or have not failed their final appeal with their football association on obtaining a license.
Aruba (ARU): The 2016–17 Aruban Division di Honor championship was postponed and wsa not completed in time for the SuperLiga, so the Calle 4 standings were used to determine the qualifiers.
Bonaire (BOE): The 2016–17 Bonaire League Kaya 6 were not completed in time for the SuperLiga, so the regular season standings were used to determine the qualifiers.
Quebec (QBC): The 2016 PLSQ Cup final was won by Blainville who also qualified for the SuperLiga by finishing third in the league. Gatineau qualified as the fourth place finisher during the PLSQ season.
Ninth-place finishers, D.C. United qualified for the SuperLiga by the virtue of seventh-place finishers Seattle Sounders vacating their SuperLiga spot and earning a Champions League spot by reaching MLS Cup 2016, and by 2016 U.S. Open Cup champions, FC Dallas qualifying for Champions League by finishing first during the MLS regular season.
Tenth-place finishers, Real Salt Lake qualified for the SuperLiga by the virtue of seventh-place finishers Seattle Sounders winning an additional Champions League spot by winning the 2016–17 CONCACAF SuperLiga. As a result LA Galaxy transfered from the SuperLiga to Champions League; ninth-placed D.C. United moved from the third qualifying round to SuperLiga group stage and Real Salt Lake took United's vacated spot.
In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams are divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2017 CONCACAF club coefficients, and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other.
First qualifying round
The first legs were played on 28–29 June, and the second legs were be played on 4–6 July 2017.