My Dream of Unity

CONCACAF has a new Champions League. Three Mexican clubs are joining the Copa Libertadores. Why all the separation? I propose one giant Champions League of the entire western hemisphere that could some day rival Europe's.

CONCACAF (North/Central America and Caribbean) has 40 member nations and CONMEBOL (South America) has 10. That total of 50 almost exactly matches UEFA's (Europe) tally of 53. Combining the two federations also allows for better competition, as it's not hard to visualize the U.S. and Mexico dominating the competition without any South American clubs.

The number of clubs each country could send would be determined at first by their FIFA national team ranking and then after five years through the same coefficient method used by UEFA that measures the strength of the leagues through their performances in international club competitions. I think capping the total number at 64 will provide opportunities for the larger countries to send enough strong representatives while giving each country the chance to send its domestic champion.

There is one thorn in this theory, and that's Canada, natch. Toronto FC is a member of MLS, and the CSL (Canadian Soccer League) is just a weird mess with an International Division that includes clubs from Italy, Serbia and Africa. Africa?! Seriously, Canada, WTF? Whatever, I got bigger fish to fry. Here are the problems that countries with real leagues could face. (Correction: Those "international" teams are just from ethnic parts of Toronto. They don't actually fly across the ocean to play each other. H/t Big Poppa)

MLS

MLS, as you probably know, is split into two conferences for a playoff at the end of the season. No other league in the world (to my knowledge...except for Canada, bastards) is divided in this way. Let's assume that MLS will always have at least two representatives in this new Champions League. That gives a spot to the Supporters' Shield winner (regular season single-table champion) and the winner of the MLS Cup. If the two are the same then I would suggest the second place team on the combined table go, but that's really for MLS to decide. The bigger issue is whether the two spots are granted the same level of entry, whether it's automatic entry into the group stages or any previous qualifying round.

Argentina/Mexico

Argentina and Mexico (along with other countries) do not have just one regular season; they have a spring league and a fall league. I'm willing to make the same assumptions about the clubs from these two countries as I am about the U.S. and ask the same question about the equality of the two spots awarded. In this case, however, is a different question: if the same team wins both leagues, how do you decide who gets the second spot since there were two seasons? I suggest taking the team with the second most total points, but feel free to tell me why this is a terrible idea.

Then there are always logistical issues and complaints of teams playing too many games, especially with the Pan-Pacific Championship. But stop complaining Galaxy fans, your club isn't even the best team in your own city, so you've got a ways to go.