Toronto FC: CONCACAF Champions League doubts point to bigger MLS issue

Given present rules, should Toronto FC win MLS Cup on Sunday, they will not qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League. Such a problem reveals a bigger, broader issue: the structure of CCL qualification in North America.

The Champions League is the pinnacle of club football. Every European team wants to be in it. For the clubs that are on the cusp of qualification, almost every decision is made with Champions League status in mind. Just ask Arsenal how they are feeling in third-straight Champions League-less season.

In the CONCACAF region, the same calibre and aura does not quite exist for the competition. While there is certainly a great pedigree of team in the CONCACAF Champions League, especially the Mexican sides who have largely dominated, it is not the be-all and end-all like the European version.

Nevertheless, qualification for the tournament is a priority for teams throughout the region, especially in the intensely competitive North American countries. A Major League Soccer team is yet to win the CCL and there is an increasingly intensified competition between different teams to be the first.

But there is a problem with the whole set-up. Qualification for the CCL is intensely complicated and unfair. Because MLS spans over two countries, CCL spots are awarded not to the league but to the federations that compose the league, the U.S. Soccer Federation and the Canadian Soccer Federation.

The former are awarded four spots, the winner of the U.S. Open Cup, the Supporters’ Shield victory, the MLS Cup champions, and then the next-best U.S. team in the MLS regular season (this is the best two U.S. teams if a Canadian team wins MLS Cup). Canada, meanwhile, only has one spot, which is decided by the Canadian Championship, which the Montreal Impact won this year, beating Toronto FC in the final.

Toronto FC are now in MLS Cup. They are in the curious position that, no matter the result, their opposition, the Seattle Sounders, will be in the CCL and they will not be. And Toronto, understandably, are not best pleased.

Head coach Greg Vanney did his best to speak politically on the situation but struggled to hide his disdain for the process:

"“It would be interesting to have a champion not be in Champions League. For us as a club, we’d like to have more than just one way to get in, but that’s where it’s at for now. Our job is to try to go win the championship this weekend and figure all that out later.”"

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Meanwhile, defender Justin Morrow spoke with less guile:

"“Should we win, we should be getting a CCL spot.”"

And they have a point. While Toronto knew the rules before the season started, the qualification structure for North American teams into the CCL is curious at best and unfair at worst. A much fairer discrepancy would be to simply hand the five best teams in MLS a spot in the competition, or the best four with a fifth going to the U.S. Open Cup winners.

This structural tension illustrates many of the present issues with MLS. The league falls between the rather gaping chasm of being an Americanised league in a global sport. The two are very distinct. There is no Champions League in the NFL or NBA or MLB. Just one competition, exclusively between North American teams.

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MLS more generally, then, must traverse this path with a little more awareness, guile and clarity. Because, at present, it is confusing at best and utterly unfair at worst. Toronto FC have a very fair grudge here, and it illuminates deeper-rooted problems in a fractious, splitting league.

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