2011–12 CONCACAF Champions League
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The 2011–12 CONCACAF Champions League was the 4th edition of the
CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly known as CONCACAF Champions League (2008–2023), is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America, ...
under its current format, and overall the 47th edition of the premier
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
club competition organized by
CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...
, the regional governing body of North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The tournament began on July 26, 2011 and finished with the second leg of the final April 25, 2012. Defending champions
Monterrey Monterrey (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...
won the title, and qualified as the CONCACAF representative at the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup.


Qualification

Twenty-four teams participated in the 2011–12 CONCACAF Champions League from the
North American North America is a continent in the Northern and Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the sou ...
,
Central American Central America is a Subregion#North America, subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Ce ...
, and
Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
zones. Nine of the teams came from North America, twelve from Central America, and three from the Caribbean. Teams could be disqualified and replaced by a team from a different country if the club didn't have an available
stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...
that met CONCACAF regulations for safety. If a club's own stadium failed to meet the set standards then it could find a suitable replacement stadium within its own country. However, if it was still determined that the club could not provide the adequate facilities then it ran the risk of being replaced.


North America

A total of nine clubs from the
North American Football Union The North American Football Union (NAFU; ; ) is a regional grouping under CONCACAF of national football organizations in the ''North American Zone''. The NAFU has no organizational structure. The statutes say "''CONCACAF shall ''recognize'' ... ...
participated in the Champions League. Mexico and the United States were allocated four spots, the most of any CONCACAF nation, while Canada was granted one spot in the tournament. In Mexico, the winners of the
Mexican Primera División Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and also as Primera Divi ...
Apertura and Clausura tournaments earned direct berths into the group stage of the Champions League, while the tournament runners-up earned berths into the preliminary round. For the United States, three of its four spots were allocated through the
Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...
regular season and playoffs, while the fourth spot was allocated to the winner of the domestic cup competition, the U.S. Open Cup. The U.S. Open Cup winner, along with the
MLS Cup MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Playoffs. The game is held in November or December and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Confere ...
runner-up, earned berths into the preliminary round of the tournament. The winner of the
Supporters' Shield The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since 199 ...
and
MLS Cup MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Playoffs. The game is held in November or December and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Confere ...
were given byes into the group stage. The winners of Canada's domestic cup competition, the
Canadian Championship The Canadian Championship () is an annual soccer tournament contested by Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and a berth in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. It is contested by Major League Soccer sides Toronto FC, Va ...
, earned the lone Canadian berth into the tournament, entering in the preliminary round.


Central America

Twelve clubs from the
Central American Football Union The Unión Centroamericana de Fútbol (Central American Football Union), more commonly known by the acronym UNCAF, represents the national football teams of Central America: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and P ...
qualified to the Champions League. If one or more clubs was precluded, it was supplanted by a club from another Central American federation. The reallocation would be based on results from previous Champions League tournaments. For the Central American representatives that qualified via split seasons, in nations that played a
playoff The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
to determine a national champion, the winners gained the nation's top spot. In nations that didn't utilize such methods, total points over both seasons, followed by other tiebreakers, determined which team gained the nation's top spot. The top teams from the leagues of
Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...
,
Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...
,
Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...
and
Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
entered the group stage, while their second teams entered the preliminary round. The two teams from the league of
El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...
and the sole representatives from the leagues of
Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...
and
Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...
entered the preliminary round.


Caribbean

Three berths in the Champions League's Preliminary Round were allocated to the top three finishers of the
CFU Club Championship The Caribbean Club Championship, also known as the CFU Club Championship or CFU Club Champions' Cup, was an annual international football competition held amongst association football clubs that are members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU). ...
, a subcontinental tournament for clubs from nations of the
Caribbean Football Union The Caribbean Football Union (CFU) is the representative organization for football (soccer), football associations in the Caribbean. It represents 25 FIFA member nations, as well as 6 territories that are not affiliated with FIFA. The Union was e ...
. In order for a Caribbean club to qualify for the CFU Club Championship, they needed to finish as the champions (or in some cases, runners-up) in their respective nation's top league in the previous season. If any Caribbean club was precluded, it was supplanted by the fourth-place finisher from the CFU Club Championship.


Teams

Teams in bold qualified directly for the group stage. *Number of appearances and last appearance count only those in the Champions League era starting from 2008–09 (not counting those in the era of the Champions' Cup from 1962 to 2008). 1 Berth originally awarded to
Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...
(
Belize Defence Force The Belize Defence Force (BDF) is the military of Belize, and is responsible for protecting the sovereignty of the country. The BDF is under the Ministry of National Defence and Border Security, which is currently headed by Hon. Florencio Marin ...
) but Belize failed CONCACAF stadium requirements, so the spot vacated was awarded to Honduras (Olimpia) based on performance from last season.


Format

Like the previous editions, the tournament is divided into three phases: *In the preliminary round, 16 teams are drawn into eight two-legged home-and-away ties, with each tie containing one team from Pot A and one team from Pot B. The eight winners qualify for the group stage to join the eight teams which directly enter the group stage. *In the group stage, 16 teams are drawn into four groups of four playing in a round-robin home-and-away format, with each group containing two direct entries (one team from Pot A and one team from Pot B) and two Preliminary Round winners. The top two teams from each group advance to the quarterfinals of the championship round. *In the championship round, the eight teams play in a
knockout tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...
, with each tie played in two-legged home-and-away format. Teams from the same association (excluding "wildcard" teams which replace a team from another association) may not be drawn with each other in the preliminary round and Group Stage, but may be drawn with each other in the championship round, where the only restriction is that in the quarterfinals, a group winner has to be drawn with the runner-up of another group and also host the second leg. For the two-legged ties of the preliminary round and Championship Round, the
away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...
is used, but not after a tie enters
extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...
, and so a tie is decided by
penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
if the aggregate score is level after extra time.


Schedule


Preliminary round

The draw for the preliminary round and the group stage was held on May 18, 2011. The first legs of the preliminary round were played July 26–28, 2011, while the second legs were played August 2–4, 2011.


Group stage

The Group Stage were played in 6 matchdays during August–October 2011: August 16–18, August 23–25, September 13–15, September 20–22, September 27–29, and October 18–20. The top two teams of each group advanced to the championship round.


Group A


Group B


Group C


Group D


Championship round


Bracket

The draw for the championship round was held on November 8, 2011. In the quarterfinals, the group winners were assured of playing the second leg at home, and were drawn against the group runners-up, with the only restriction being that they could not face the same team that they played in the group stage (and thus they could face a team from the same association).


Quarter-finals

The first legs of the quarter-finals were played March 6–8, 2012, and the second legs were played March 13–15, 2012.


Semi-finals

The first legs of the semi-finals were played March 28, 2012, and the second legs were played April 4, 2012.


Final

The first leg of the final was played April 18, 2012, and the second leg was played April 25, 2012.


Top goalscorers

Source:


Awards

For the first time, CONCACAF awarded a Golden Boot trophy to the top scorer and a Golden Ball trophy to the player of the tournament. Humberto Suazo won the Golden Boot over
Oribe Peralta Oribe Peralta Morones (born 12 January 1984) is a Mexican former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. He is an Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament, Olympic ...
by the tie-breaker of scoring more goals over the two-leg final. Oribe Peralta won the Golden Ball, determined by a combination of fan and media votes.


References


External links


CONCACAF Champions League
official website {{DEFAULTSORT:2011-12 Concacaf Champions League 1