User:Bmf 051/sandbox/2015–16 CONCACAF SuperLiga

The CONCACAF SuperLiga was a proposed annual continental club football competition. The tournament would be a secondary tournament to an expanded version of the CONCACAF Champions League. It would serve the same purpose as the UEFA Europa League. It is unlikely that such a design would work in reality, because many of the Caribbean Football Union associations could not be relied upon to provide teams on a regular basis (see the low participation for some nations in CFU Club Championship). Also, many associations do not have stadiums that meet FIFA and CONCACAF requirements for hosting matches in a tournament such as this. But this is just an idea.

The tournament would consist of two qualification rounds and a play-off round, with 22 surviving teams entering the group stage, joining 16 teams that qualify automatically and 10 losers from the play-off round of the CONCACAF Champions League. The 48 teams are drawn into twelve groups of four teams and play each other in a double round-robin system. The twelve group winners and twelve runners-up proceed to the knockout phase, joined by the third-placed teams from the group stage of the Champions League, ultimately culminating with the two-legged final.

UNAM were the title holders. As they automatically qualified for the 2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League as the SuperLiga title holder and advanced to the knockout stage, they were not able to defend their title.

Toluca won the tournament, defeating Santos de Guápiles 3–2 on aggregate in the final after extra time.

Format changes edit

Here is a list of changes I made from the previous tournament. Many of these changes were made to make matches in the group stage and later rounds more competitive, decrease the size of the group stage from 80 teams to 48, and eliminate the round of 48:

A second qualification round was added.
If the CFU Club Championship title holders did not qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League, they would have earned an automatic berth in the SuperLiga, entering at the group stage.
The number of teams entering from the CONCACAF Champions League after being eliminated from that tournament was be reduced. Previously, any team eliminated from the Champions League before the knockout stage entered the SuperLiga (44 teams total). Now, only teams losing in the second qualifying round and play-off round, and the third-placed teams from the group stage will enter the SuperLiga (30 teams total), but teams losing in the first qualifying round and fourth-placed teams from the group stage (as well as teams that reach the knockout round) will not.
While Canadian teams were still ineligible for the spots earned by American teams in MLS, had a Canadian team finished in a qualifying spot that would have earned an American team qualification to either tournament, that spot would have been vacated in favor of an American team (as was done in past tournaments) and that Canadian team would have been given a supplemental bid in the same round of the same tournament (new for this tournament). If a Canadian team had qualified for more than one spot (either by having the best record among Canadian MLS teams, winning the Canadian Championship, or by earning a supplemental bid), they would have vacated all but one of those bids. Any vacated supplemental Canadian bids would not have been filled by other teams, and any other vacated Canadian bids would only have been filled by Canada's #2 team (if that team already had a better bid, then their vacated bid would have remained unfilled). Under these new rules, Canada could have potentially earned more than two bids (including multiple Champions League bids) under certain circumstances.
Four associations earned an additional spot in the tournament as a reward for Fair Play. Ideally, I'd like to award these in a similar fashion to the UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking, but CONCACAF doesn't keep official Fair Play rankings. I constructed my own rankings instead, using CONCACAF club and national tournament matches played between 1 May 2014 and 30 April 2015. To be ranked, an association must play more than the minimum number of games required. This number is determined by taking the total games played in all CONCACAF competitions and dividing it by 41 (the number of associations in CONCACAF). Once the top 4 associations were determined, the highest finisher from those associations' Fair Play leagues (excluding teams that have already qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League or CONCACAF SuperLiga) received a berth in the SuperLiga's first qualifying round.
For countries that conducted a domestic cup, winners of those tournaments earned an automatic berth to the CONCACAF SuperLiga, taking their association's top seed. This means that the domestic cup winners from the United States and Canada no longer received automatic berths in the CONCACAF Champions League. This proved to be a moot point, because the 2014 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup winners (Seattle Sounders) qualified for the Champions League via their league performance, and the 2015 Canadian Championship was moved from just before the start of the Champions League until just after the start, meaning the Canadian Champion would not be decided in time to qualify for the Champions League. Both Copa MX winners would have earned a place in the tournament (the winner of 2015 Supercopa MX would have earned Mexico's first bid, and the loser would have earned the third bid). However Santos Laguna, winners of the Apertura 2014 Copa MX, qualified for the Champions League by winning the 2015 Liga MX Torneo Clausura and were replaced in the SuperLiga by Monterrey, the team with the best aggregate record during the 2014–15 Liga MX season that had not already qualified for North American qualification. After Santos were removed from the Supercopa MX due to their participation in the 2015 Campeón de Campeones (played on the same day in the same stadium), Puebla (winners of the Clausura 2015 Copa MX) were automatically given the top Mexican seed in the SuperLiga.
The maximum number of combined bids in both tournaments that an association could earn was set at 2 for every 3 teams at the highest level of that association's league system. This is on top of any existing restrictions on the number bids an association may earn. In the Champions League, each association will still earn no more than 1 bid for every 3 teams at the highest level of its league system (or the number of bids allocated to that association based on its association ranking, whichever is less). In the SuperLiga, the maximum number of bids was still 3. These restrictions do not apply to title holder bids, fair play bids, supplemental bids, or SuperLiga bids given to teams that are eliminated from the Champions League.

This new restriction meant that Canada will now earn 1 bid in the SuperLiga, instead of 3. The table below gives the maximum number of bids an association may earn in each tournament based on the number of teams at the highest level of that association's league system.

Number of teams	CCL bids	CC bids	Total bids
1 or 2	1	0	1
3 or 4		1	2
5		2	3
6 or 7	max of 2	max of 3	4
8	max of 2	3	max of 5
9 to 11	max of 3		max of 6
12 to 14	max of 4		max of 7
15 or more	max of 5		max of 8
Note: Actual number of bids depends on an association's ranking.

Format edit

Qualification edit

The CONCACAF SuperLiga will commence with a double round-robin group stage of 48 teams, which is preceded by three qualification rounds for teams that do not receive direct entry to the tournament proper.

Three teams will qualify for the tournament from each member association, except for Canada who has one qualifier (a spot which was vacated) but were also eligible for the American spots in the tournament. CONCACAF club coefficients, generated by the results of clubs representing each association during the previous five Champions League seasons, will determine the number of qualification rounds the association's teams must compete in. Teams will qualify based on the results of tournaments completed between July 2014 and June 2015 (some exceptions may be made for some associations if their competitions are completed later, so long as they are completed before teams from that association enter the tournament). Guyana, Saint Lucia, and the British Virgin Islands will not complete any major league competitions during this time (though Guyana conducted a major cup competition), so the results of their most recently completed league competitions will be used instead. The Bahamas season was not completed, and the standings when the season was cancelled were used (calculated as a per game average).

Four associations will receive an additional bid based on fair play.

Twenty-eight teams eliminated from the 2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League are transferred to the CONCACAF SuperLiga.

Distribution edit

The table below shows the default access list.

For associations without a domestic cup, the three selections will be given to the three best teams that have not qualified for the Champions League, and the teams will be seeded based on their performance during the domestic season. Seeding methods vary between associations, due to different season formats.

For associations that have a domestic cup, the selections will be as follows:

First selection: Domestic cup winner
Second selection: Best team not yet qualified for Champions League or SuperLiga
Third selection: Second best team not yet qualified for Champions League or SuperLiga (or second domestic cup winner, for Mexico)

	Teams entering in this round	Teams advancing from previous round	Teams transferred from Champions League
First qualifying round (78 teams)	20 first selections from associations 20–39 24 second selections from associations 16–39 30 third selections from associations 10–39 4 teams which qualified via Fair Play ranking
Second qualifying round (64 teams)	10 first selections from associations 10–19 7 second selections from associations 9–15 8 third selections from associations 1–9 (except Canada)	39 winners from first qualifying round
Play-off round (44 teams)		32 winners from second qualifying round	12 losers from Champions League second qualifying round
Group stage (48 teams)	9 first selections from associations 1–9 7 second selections from associations 1–8 (except Canada)	22 winners from play-off round	10 losers from Champions League play-off round
Knockout phase (32 teams)		12 group winners from group stage 12 group runners-up from group stage	8 third-placed teams from Champions League group stage

Redistribution rules edit

A CONCACAF SuperLiga place is vacated when a team qualifies for both the Champions League and the SuperLiga, or qualifies for the SuperLiga by more than one method. When a place is vacated, it is redistributed within the national association by the following rules:

When the domestic cup winners (considered as the "highest-placed" qualifier within the national association with the latest starting round) also qualify for the Champions League, their SuperLiga place is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for continental competitions qualify for the SuperLiga, with the SuperLiga qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place".
When the domestic cup winners also qualify for the SuperLiga through league position, their place through the league position is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for continental competitions qualify for the SuperLiga, with the SuperLiga qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place" if possible.
There are special rules for spots vacated by Canadian teams, as Canadian teams don't earn spots based on league performance (unless they earn an American spot). These rules are noted above.
A Fair Play place is taken by the highest-ranked team in the domestic Fair Play rankings which have not yet qualified for continental competitions.

Association team allocation edit

NOTE: From 2014–15, the rankings use my simulated version of this tournament. In years prior, the actual tournament is used.

Each association (except Canada) gets 3 direct berths in the 2015–16 CONCACAF SuperLiga. Only one team (the winner of the Canadian Championship) qualifies from Canada. In addition to this, 4 berths are awarded based on the Fair Play rankings and 30 teams drop down to this tournament upon elimination from the 2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League for a total of 149 teams.

Association ranking (2015–16) edit

Apart from the 3 berths (1 for Canada) granted automatically, associations may have additional teams participating in the SuperLiga, as noted below:

(FP) – Additional berth via Fair Play ranking (Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, French Guiana, Martinique)
(CCL) – Additional teams transferred from the Champions League

Rank	Association	Coeff.	Teams	Notes
1	Mexico	110.750	3	+1(CCL)
2	United States	80.437		+2(CCL)
3	Costa Rica	65.047		+1(CCL)
4	Canada	62.750	1
5	Guatemala	49.857	3	+2(CCL)
6	El Salvador	43.533		+2(CCL)
7	Honduras	43.249		+1(CCL)
8	Panama	42.083		+1(CCL)
9	Puerto Rico	36.600		+1(CCL)
10	Trinidad and Tobago	26.700		+1(CCL)
11	Nicaragua	18.875		+2(CCL)
12	Guyana	17.875		+1(CCL)
13	Haiti	13.500		+2(CCL)

Rank	Association	Coeff.	Teams	Notes
14	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	9.500	3	+1(CCL)
15	Antigua and Barbuda	8.375		+1(FP)
16	Curaçao	8.125
17	Jamaica	7.250		+1(CCL)
18	Cayman Islands	7.250		+1(CCL)
19	Bermuda	6.500		+1(CCL)
20	Belize	6.250
21	Saint Lucia	5.125		+1(FP) +1(CCL)
22	Suriname	4.250
23	Turks and Caicos Islands	4.125
24	Aruba	4.000		+1(CCL)
25	Dominican Republic	3.625
26	Dominica	3.500

Rank	Association	Coeff.	Teams	Notes
27	Cuba	3.500	3
28	Saint Kitts and Nevis	2.625
29	Guadeloupe	2.000
30	British Virgin Islands	1.875
31	U.S. Virgin Islands	1.500		+1(CCL)
32	Bonaire	1.500		+1(CCL)
33	Grenada	1.375		+1(CCL)
34	Anguilla	1.375
35	Barbados	1.125		+1(CCL)
36	Martinique	0.875		+1(FP) +1(CCL)
37	French Guiana	0.625		+1(FP) +1(CCL)
38	Saint-Martin	0.625
39	Bahamas	0.125		+1(CCL)

Teams edit

League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses.

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
FP: Fair Play
CCL: Transferred from the Champions League
- GS: Third-placed teams from the group stage
- PO: Losers from the play-off round
- 2Q: Losers from the second qualifying round

Round of 32
Real Sociedad (CCL GS)	Guayama (CCL GS)	Central (CCL GS)	Real Salt Lake (CCL GS)
Querétaro (CCL GS)	New England Revolution (CCL GS)	Santa Tecla (CCL GS)	Municipal (CCL GS)
Group stage
Puebla (CW)	Antigua (5th)	Independiente (4th)	Cartaginés (CCL PO)
Toluca (6th)	Xelajú (6th)	Brazilian Soccer Academy (3rd)	San Francisco (CCL PO)
FC Dallas (6th)	FAS (4th)	Walter Ferretti (CCL PO)	Águila (CCL PO)
Columbus Crew (7th)	Juventud Independiente (5th)	Arnett Gardens (CCL PO)	Guyana Defence Force (CCL PO)
Santos de Guápiles (5th)	Marathón (4th)	Racing Club Aruba (CCL PO)	Suchitepéquez (CCL PO)
Pérez Zeledón (6th)	Real España (5th)	Golden Lion (CCL PO)
Toronto FC (2nd)	Sporting San Miguelito (3rd)	Big Players (CCL PO)
Play-off round
Cayenne (CCL 2Q)	Helenites (CCL 2Q)	America des Cayes (CCL 2Q)	Barbados Defence Force (CCL 2Q)
Paradise (CCL 2Q)	Real Rincon (CCL 2Q)	Bears (CCL 2Q)	Don Bosco (CCL 2Q)
Scholars International (CCL 2Q)	Hope International (CCL 2Q)	Somerset Trojans (CCL 2Q)	Real Estelí (CCL 2Q)
Second qualifying round
Monterrey (7th)	Spartans (4th)	Western Tigers (3rd)	Centro Dominguito (2nd)
New York Red Bulls (8th)	Isabela (5th)	Tempête (3rd)	Reno (CW)
Universidad de Costa Rica (7th)	North East Stars (CW)	Petit-Goâve (4th)	Cayman Athletic (CW)
Petapa (7th)	Defence Force (3rd)	Camdonia Chelsea (2nd)	Dandy Town Hornets (CW)
Alianza (6th)	Diriangén (3rd)	System 3 (3rd)
Honduras Progreso (6th)	Managua (4th)	Hoppers (2nd)
Plaza Amador (5th)	Slingerz (CW)	SAP (3rd)
First qualifying round
Point Fortin Civic (5th)	Nishan 42 (CW)	Village Superstars (4th)	UWI Blackbirds (3rd)
Jalapa (5th)	Notch (2nd)	L'Etoile (CW)	Weymouth Wales (4th)
Buxton United (4th)	Walking Boyz Company (3rd)	La Gauloise (2nd)	Club Franciscain (CW)
Mirebalais (5th)	Beaches (2nd)	Siroco (4th)	Club Colonial (3rd)
Avenues United (4th)	Cheshire Hall (3rd)	One Love United (2nd)	Aiglon (4th)
Grenades (4th)	SWA Sharks (4th)	Sugar Boys (3rd)	Matoury (CW)
UNDEBA (3rd)	Britannia (CW)	Wolues (4th)	Le Geldar (3rd)
Jong Holland (4th)	Estrella (2nd)	Raymix (2nd)	Kourou (4th)
Montego Bay United (2nd)	Bubali (4th)	Haitian Victory (3rd)	Marigot (CW)
Waterhouse (3rd)	Don Bosco Jarabacoa (2nd)	Rovers (4th)	St. Louis Stars (2nd)
Elite (2nd)	Bauger (3rd)	Estrellas (2nd)	Junior Stars (3rd)
Sunset (4th)	San Cristóbal (4th)	Juventus (3rd)	Lyford Cay (2nd)
PHC Zebras (3rd)	South East United (2nd)	Uruguay (4th)	Baha Juniors (3rd)
Robin Hood (4th)	Bath Estate (3rd)	Hurricane (CW)	Future Stars (4th)
Belmopan Bandits (2nd)	Dublanc (4th)	GBSS (3rd)	Old Road (FP)
Police United (3rd)	Cienfuegos (2nd)	Hard Rock (4th)	Aux Lyons United (FP)
Belize Defence Force (4th)	La Habana (3rd)	Roaring Lions (2nd)	Étoile Filante Iracoubo (FP)
Northern United All Stars (2nd)	Villa Clara (4th)	Attackers (3rd)	Marinoise (FP)
Lancers (3rd)	Conaree (CW)	Salsa Ballers (4th)
VSADC (4th)	St. Peters (3rd)	Rendezvous (2nd)

Notably seven teams that did not play in their national top-division took part in the competition, including all three direct entrants from Puerto Rico: Brazilian Soccer Academy, Spartans, and Isabela, none of whom participated in the Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Puerto Rico in 2015. Independiente were relegated to the second division for finishing last on aggregate in the Liga Panameña de Fútbol, but still qualified for the SuperLiga as runners-up of the 2015 LPF Torneo Clausura. Don Bosco Jarabacoa self-relegated to the Dominican Republic's second division, choosing to remain an amateur club after the first division became fully professional. Western Tigers were not chosen to be a member of the inaugural GFF Elite League. Kourou were relegated for not maintaining enough youth teams, despite finishing 4th. Two other teams qualified without being a member of their national top-division, but have since moved to the top-division: Slingerz and Nishan 42.

Fair Play Rankings edit

The list below shows the top 4 associations in the CONCACAF Fair Play Rankings, who each received an extra bid in the CONCACAF SuperLiga. The teams nominated for these four bids were the best teams in each associations' Fair Play leagues that had not already qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League or CONCACAF SuperLiga.

Key to colours
Top 4 associations earned an extra bid in the CONCACAF SuperLiga

Rank	Association	Fair Play League Leader	Nomination
1	Antigua and Barbuda	Parham	Old Road
2	Saint Lucia	VSADC	Aux Lyons United
3	French Guiana	Étoile Filante Iracoubo
4	Martinique	Marinoise

Round and draw dates edit

The schedule of the competition is as follows:

Phase	Round	Draw date	First leg	Second leg
Qualifying	First qualifying round	22 June 2015	16 and 20 July 2015	23 July 2015
Qualifying	Second qualifying round	17 July 2015	30 July 2015	6 August 2015
Play-off	Play-off round	7 August 2015	20 August 2015	27 August 2015
Group stage	Matchday 1	28 August 2015	17 September 2015
	Matchday 2		1 October 2015
	Matchday 3		22 October 2015
	Matchday 4		5 November 2015
	Matchday 5		26 November 2015
	Matchday 6		10 December 2015
Knockout phase	Round of 32	14 December 2015	18 February 2016	25 February 2016
	Round of 16	26 February 2016	10 March 2016	17 March 2016
	Quarter-finals	18 March 2016	7 April 2016	14 April 2016
	Semi-finals	15 April 2016	28 April 2016	5 May 2016
	Final	15 April 2016	18 May 2016	25 May 2016

Qualifying rounds edit

In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams are divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 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 edit

The draw for the first qualifying round was held on 22 June 2015. The first legs were played on 16 and 20 July, and the second legs were played on 23 July 2015.

A total of 78 teams play in the first qualifying round.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Salsa Ballers	6–3	Village Superstars	3–2	3–1
Estrellas	0–2	Point Fortin Civic	0–1	0–1
Bubali	5–3	L'Etoile	3–2	2–1
Jalapa	6–2	Future Stars	2–1	4–1
Waterhouse	2–2 (4–2 p)	San Cristóbal	1–1	1–1 (a.e.t.)
Uruguay	7–2	Wolues	3–2	4–0
St. Louis Stars	2–7	Sunset	2–4	0–3
Robin Hood	2–4	VSADC	2–3	0–1
Belmopan Bandits	2–3	Bath Estate	1–1	1–2
Avenues United	3–0	Beaches	2–0	1–0
Notch	2–2 (a)	St. Peters	1–0	1–2
Cienfuegos	2–8	Lancers	2–4	0–4
Belize Defence Force	4–1	South East United	2–1	2–0
Britannia	7–4	PHC Zebras	3–2	4–2
Rovers	5–3	Marinoise	4–2	1–1
UWI Blackbirds	1–4	Old Road	0–2	1–2
Conaree	4–4 (11–10 p)	Dublanc	2–2	2–2 (a.e.t.)
Nishan 42	3–3 (2–3 p)	Villa Clara	2–1	1–2 (a.e.t.)
GBSS	4–1	Étoile Filante Iracoubo	3–0	1–1
Club Colonial	1–2	Don Bosco Jarabacoa	1–1	0–1
Sugar Boys	3–3 (a)	Cheshire Hall	1–1	2–2
Northern United All Stars	3–3 (a)	Raymix	1–1	2–2
Rendezvous	0–2	Police United	0–1	0–1
Siroco	0–7	Montego Bay United	0–4	0–3
Hard Rock	2–4	Club Franciscain	2–3	0–1
Kourou	0–4	La Habana	0–1	0–3
Baha Juniors	5–2	Juventus	2–0	3–2
Estrella	6–0	Aiglon	4–0	2–0
Weymouth Wales	4–6^{[^]}	Le Geldar	4–2	0–4
Elite	7–2	Mirebalais	2–2	5–0
Buxton United	3–2	Marigot	2–0	1–2
UNDEBA	5–2	Roaring Lions	4–0	1–2
La Gauloise	3–1	One Love United	2–1	1–0
SWA Sharks	5–1	Aux Lyons United	2–0	3–1
Junior Stars	1–2	Attackers	0–0	1–2
Hurricane	2–4	Bauger	1–2	1–2
Walking Boyz Company	4–2	Matoury	3–0	1–2
Haitian Victory	1–3	Jong Holland	1–1	0–2
Lyford Cay	2–4	Grenades	1–2	1–2

^
Order of legs reversed after initial draw.

Second qualifying round edit

The draw for the second qualifying round was held on 17 July 2015. The first legs were played on 30 July, and the second legs were played on 6 August 2015.

A total of 64 teams play in the second qualifying round: 25 teams which enter in this round, and the 39 winners of the first qualifying round.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
SAP	2–0	Uruguay	0–0	2–0
Jong Holland	3–4	Reno	2–0	1–4
Belize Defence Force	2–2 (a)	Monterrey	1–0	1–2
Tempête	3–0	Bubali	2–0	1–0
Villa Clara	1–9	North East Stars	0–4	1–5
Grenades	5–0	GBSS	5–0	0–0
Defence Force	6–1	Notch	4–0	2–1
Cayman Athletic	4–2	Bath Estate	3–1	1–1
New York Red Bulls	3–2	Northern United All Stars	1–1	2–1
Waterhouse	3–2	Isabela	2–1	1–1
Plaza Amador	5–0	La Gauloise	3–0	2–0
Elite	1–0	VSADC	1–0	0–0
Jalapa	1–2	Centro Dominguito	0–1	1–1
Petapa	5–3	Rovers	4–1	1–2
Attackers	3–6	Spartans	0–4	3–2
Buxton United	3–4	Walking Boyz Company	3–4	0–0
Britannia	2–3	Old Road	2–2	0–1
Avenues United	2–3	Diriangén	0–1	2–2
Petit-Goâve	4–2	Club Franciscain	2–1	2–1
Salsa Ballers	1–5	Universidad de Costa Rica	1–1	0–4
Dandy Town Hornets	7–1	Conaree	3–1	4–0
System 3	2–2 (1–3 p)	Alianza	0–1	2–1 (a.e.t.)
Baha Juniors	2–4	Hoppers	2–1	0–3
UNDEBA	1–3	Western Tigers	0–3	1–0
Lancers	3–5	Don Bosco Jarabacoa	2–3	1–2
Le Geldar	0–3	Sugar Boys	0–2	0–1
Honduras Progreso	5–2	Sunset	1–1	4–1
La Habana	1–5	Point Fortin Civic	1–3	0–2
SWA Sharks	2–0	Managua	1–0	1–0
Slingerz	2–1	Police United	1–0	1–1
Estrella	1–7	Camdonia Chelsea	1–4	0–3
Bauger	4–2	Montego Bay United	4–0	0–2

Play-off round edit

The draw for the play-off round was held on 7 August 2015. The first legs will be played on 20 August, and the second legs will be played on 27 August 2015.

A total of 44 teams play in the play-off round: the 32 winners of the second qualifying round, and the 12 losers of the 2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League second qualifying round.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Spartans	3–3 (a)	SWA Sharks	1–3	2–0
Hoppers	4–3	Hope International	2–2	2–1
New York Red Bulls	5–3	Bears	4–1	1–2
Alianza	2–2 (4–5 p)	Reno	1–1	1–1 (a.e.t.)
Petit-Goâve	5–3	Cayenne	1–0	4–3
Tempête	4–2	Old Road	3–0	1–2
Centro Dominguito	7–2	Walking Boyz Company	6–2	1–0
Defence Force	4–3	Helenites	1–0	3–3
Plaza Amador	5–1	Bauger	2–1	3–0
Somerset Trojans	3–2	Elite	3–0	0–2
Cayman Athletic	3–2	Honduras Progreso	1–1	2–1
Slingerz	1–5	Point Fortin Civic	1–2	0–3
SAP	3–1	America des Cayes	2–0	1–1
Dandy Town Hornets	3–3 (a)	Belize Defence Force	0–2	3–1
Camdonia Chelsea	6–1	Barbados Defence Force	3–1	3–0
Real Estelí	3–2	Don Bosco Jarabacoa	2–1	1–1
Don Bosco	4–1	Petapa	2–0	2–1
Paradise	2–1	Western Tigers	1–0	1–1
North East Stars	3–5	Scholars International	1–1	2–4
Diriangén	2–1	Waterhouse	1–0	1–1
Grenades	7–2	Sugar Boys	5–0	2–2
Universidad de Costa Rica	4–0	Real Rincon	4–0	0–0

Group stage edit

Costa Rica

Quetzaltenango

Santa Ana

Águila

San Pedro Sula

Panama City

BSA

T&T

Managua

A&B

Cayman Isl.

Bermuda

Costa Rica teams

Quetzaltenango area teams

Xelajú

Suchitepéquez

Santa Ana area teams
FAS

Juventud Independiente

San Pedro Sula teams

Marathón

Real España

Panama City area teams

San Francisco

Sporting San Miguelito

Independiente

Plaza Amador

Managua area teams

Walter Ferretti Diriangén

T&T teams

Point Fortin Def. Force

A&B teams

Hoppers

SAP

Grenades

Cayman Islands teams

Bermuda teams

Location of teams that have qualified for the group stage of the 2015–16 CONCACAF SuperLiga

Brown: Group A; Red: Group B;

Orange: Group C;

Yellow: Group D;

Green: Group E;

Blue: Group F;

Purple: Group G;

Pink: Group H;

Dark green: Group I;

Deep pink: Group J;

Cyan: Group K;

Spring green: Group L.

The draw for the group stage was held on 28 August 2015. The 48 teams were allocated into four pots based on their CONCACAF club coefficients. The teams were drawn into twelve groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.

In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The matchdays are 17 September, 1 October, 22 October, 5 November, 26 November, and 10 December 2015. The group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 32, where they are joined by the eight third-placed teams of the 2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League group stage.

A total of 48 teams play in the group stage: 16 teams which enter in this stage, the 22 winners of the play-off round, and the 10 losers of the 2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League play-off round.

Tiebreakers
The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied in the order given to determine the rankings higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question; superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question; higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question; higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question; if, after having applied criteria 1 to 4, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6 to 12 apply; superior goal difference in all group matches; higher number of goals scored in all group matches; higher number of away goals scored in all group matches; higher number of wins in all group matches; higher number of away wins in all group matches; lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in all group matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points); higher club coefficient.