North American SuperLiga

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North American SuperLiga
2008 North American SuperLiga

Founded
2007
Continent
North America (CONCACAF)
Countries
Canada Mexico United States
Number of Teams
8 (Group stages)
Current Champions (2007)
Pachuca
Most successful club
Pachuca (1 championship)
Website
SuperLiga Website

The SuperLiga is a North American football (soccer) competition between teams from Mexico's Primera División and the United States' and Canada's Major League Soccer, the top football divisions of each respective country. SuperLiga will not only decide the best in the region, but will also award $1,000,000 to the winner; the heftiest winner’s purse in North American football (soccer) history.

The inaugural edition of the competition opened on 24 July 2007 and ended with the final on 29 August.^[1]

1 Format
2 Logo
3 Television
4 Results
5 See also
6 References

[edit] Format

The format, modeled after the UEFA Champions League but the home and away format, includes a group phase and a knockout phase with all games held in U.S. venues. The tournament has an invitational format for its 2007 debut^[2], with four teams each being invited from MLS and La Primera División. As an added incentive to participating clubs, one million dollars (U.S.) in prize money will be awarded to the victor.^[3]

It is planned that, depending on its success, the tournament will take place annually. There has been some consideration to expand the competition to eight teams from La Primera División and eight from MLS for 2008, with teams qualifying based on where they finish in their domestic leagues.^[4]

MLS has announced that "the four MLS teams with the best regular season records in 2007 will qualify for SuperLiga 2008".^[5] It has yet to be announced what the Mexican teams competitive criteria to determine their participants in future editions of SuperLiga will be.

[edit] Logo

The SuperLiga mark – the feather – took its inspiration from representative symbols of the involved North American countries: the Bald Eagle native to the United States and Canada, and the Golden Eagle which appears on Mexico’s flag. Historically in both regions, the feather – la pluma in Spanish – has long been revered as an emblem of bravery, excellence and glory.

[edit] Television

The entire tournament is being telecast live in prime time by Univision's TeleFutura Network in the United States and by Televisa and TV Azteca in Mexico. It can also be seen in English in Canada on Fox Sports World Canada and in English in the United States on the internet on Major League Soccer's website. It is also being shown at the SuperLiga official website. The English language commentary heard on MLSNET.com and Superliga2007.com is the commentary from Fox Sports World Canada's telecast.