FRISCO, Texas – Major League Soccer and Liga MX announced a new iteration of the Leagues Cup, the intra-league competition featuring teams from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Beginning in 2023, the Leagues Cup will expand from an eight-team competition that ran concurrently with the MLS season to a month-long, 47-team competition with both MLS and Liga MX pausing their seasons so every team can participate.
It’s an exciting development for MLS fans who’ll get to see their clubs compete in a World Cup-style tournament against a bunch of teams they’ve never faced before.
Click here to read the full release at MLSsoccer.com.
Let’s dive a little deeper.
Leagues Cup History
The Leagues Cup was established in 2019 and has been played twice, in 2019 and 2021 (it was cancelled in the 2020 due to the pandemic and wasn’t held this year as MLS and Liga MX teams played one-off friendlies instead). The 2019 edition was won by Cruz Azul, and León triumphed over the Seattle Sounders in last year’s tournament.
New Format
The new Leagues Cup will include all 47 clubs from MLS and Liga MX competing over four weeks. Games will be held in the U.S. and Canada. The competition will total 77 games across the Group Stage, Round of 32, Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Final and Third-Place game. The 2023 Group Stage starts on July 21 and the Final will be played on August 19.
The Group Stage will involve 15 groups with three teams each (the 2022 MLS Cup champions receive a bye and will start the competition at the Round of 32, along with the top-performing Liga MX team from 2022). The top 15 teams from MLS, based on the 2022 standings, will host two Group Stage games, meaning FC Dallas will host at least two Leagues Cup matches next year. Each team will face the other two clubs in their group once and the top two finishers will advance to the one-game knockout rounds, beginning with the Round of 32.
No ties! There will be no ties in the Leagues Cup. Matches that are tied after 90 minutes will go directly to penalties and the winning team will receive an extra point in addition to the point from the “tie” in regulation—this is the exact format of MLS NEXT Pro, if you’re familiar.
The Rewards
So, what does the Leagues Cup winner get? Of course, they’re awarded the Leagues Cup trophy (see below). Importantly, the new Leagues Cup is the first two-league competition sanctioned by a FIFA confederation (in this case Concacaf), so the Leagues Cup will funnel into the Concacaf Champions League (CCL), which in turn funnels into the FIFA Club World Cup. So, Leagues Cup winners will qualify directly to the Concacaf Champions League Round of 16 (five total teams qualify for this round directly by winning their domestic leagues, e.g. MLS). Plus, the second and third-place Leagues Cup finishers will be entered into Round One of the CCL (the Round One includes 27 total teams).
How to Watch
The Leagues Cup will be available on the Apple TV app, which is available on Apple devices, smart TVs, streaming devices from Roku, Amazon, and Google, game consoles, and the web at tv.apple.com.
