Champions Cup is forcing top clubs into a re-prioritisation of season objectives
March 23 – When Inter Miami rested Lionel Messi from an MLS away trip to Charlotte, in order to have him ready for their crucial mid-week second leg Champions Cup tie against Nashville, it reflected a wider prioritisation of the Champions Cup that is being seen throughout clubs in the Concacaf region.
The 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup has hit a new peak on multiple levels and one that is demanding the most ambitious clubs to rethink their season objectives.
A key driver of this Concacaf-wide rethink is that the Champions cup is now delivering a greater financial benefit, and the potential for a lot more. This season the winners will receive $5 million in prize money and financial distributions, a five-fold increase from the previous Champions League era.
Concacaf has invested significantly in the competition to build its status as a top tier club competition globally, raising its profile and media recognition alongside a tighter administrative structure and presentation that delivers all the requirements that come with being top tier.
It is a new way of thinking that the clubs have bought into.
A new format that sees a knockout structure from the first round, has brought an increased competitiveness that fans are similarly buying into. There are no meaningless group fixtures and as the round of 16 showed last week, qualification is never entirely guaranteed until the final whistle is blown.
A second key motivation behind the changes in perception are the four qualification slots to the new format Club World Cup, whose second edition will be in 2029.
The winners of 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 will all be rewarded with a Club World Cup financial prize of at least $14.55 million for participation.
This is on top of the global recognition they will get from facing teams from other continents, increased commercial opportunities, and an opportunity to showcase players for potential sales.
The history of the Champions Cup over its 60 years+ of competition has been domination by Mexican clubs. MLS clubs have at times seemed indifferent and too often lacking competitive intensity.
That has changed. MLS clubs with ambitious owners want more from their investments, and increased recognition and revenue from beyond their national boundaries.
Their focus on the Champions Cup has added an additional edge to the competition and issued a challenge to Liga MX and its fans who had come to believe the Champions Cup and subsequent qualification for the Club World Cup, their birthright.
The quarter finals will see four MLS teams play four Liga MX teams over two legs. Every match guarantees its own cup final competitiveness and the stakes – financial and competition – have been raised.
The new prioritisation of the Champions Cup hasn’t been just a US and Canada phenomenon.
It has also sparked a rethink within Liga MX clubs who had perhaps started to take the competition for granted. For them the hard part previously was qualifying. That has changed and forced reassessments.
Club America coach André Jardine told Mexican publication elecominista.com that he’s prioritising the Concacaf Champions League over Liga MX: “In the Concacaf Champions League there’s no rotation, it’s the best 11. In the league, we sometimes have to think about the workload. In the Concacaf Champions League, it’s the best 11 for the moment,” he said before the second leg of the Round of 16 against Philadelphia Union, where América, at home, held on to a draw to qualify for the quarter finals.
Antonio Mohamed, Toluca’s coach, said the same before a spectacular comeback against San Diego FC having lost the first leg 2-3 in San Diego.
“Obviously, if we have to choose at any point, we would choose this competition. We’ve already won two league titles, so if the tournaments are tied in the quarterfinals, we’ll go with this competition,” said Mohamed.
More money and more glory has seen a shift in priorities for Concacaf’s top clubs. That in turn is translating to a new competitive edge on the pitch that fans and commercial partners are increasingly buying in to. Winning regional bragging rights now requires, but is also coming, with an awful lot more.
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