Americas Champions League

The Americas Champions League is a proposed association football club competition for the Americas.
In August 2015, president of media rights company MP & Silva, Riccardo Silva, announced he was looking to create a 64-team competition with a minimum of US $5 million prize money for each entrant and a prize fund of US $30 million for the winning team.
In September 2015, it was reported that staff previously affiliated with Bloomberg Sports, National Football League, and Soccer United Marketing had been appointed to plan the competition.
Concept
By bringing together the best athletes, passionate fans, global broadcasting, state of the art venues and authentic meaningful competition, Americas Champions League will be the longstanding solution to a desire for the highest level of competitive club football across the Americas. ACL's concept was built to benefit the clubs and fans with elite-level authentic competition, global awareness and full transparency.
All competition rules, commercial and broadcast revenues, and allocation procedures will be made public, and will be governed by an independent ACL governing body. This governing body will includean Advisory Board consisting of respected leaders in sports, law and business from throughout the Americas, led by Paul Tagliabue.
Americas Champions League will be played by the 64 best football clubs from South America, North America, Central America and Caribbean playing a knockout format. The qualifying criteria should be similar to UEFA Champions League, where the best of each country’s league and domestic cup winners to qualify in accordance with country market size.
ACL organizers want to finalize the competition format in collaboration with the clubs, leagues and federations. In the original proposal the Americas Champions League matches should take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and should run from February to November, taking into account all domestic and Fifa match dates and considering all operational and sporting factors.
Format
The Americas Champions will be a 64-team annual tournament featuring the best clubs of the Americas. There is no timetable for the tournament to begin. However MP & Silva has already met with, and received pledges from many of clubs in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico and North America.
The tournament will have 11 rounds and 1 final, played in a different city every year, like the NFL's Super Bowl. It will feature an exciting knock-out format consisting of 2-leg home-and-away series (mata-mata) and one-game final in an iconic stadium. 50% of the field will play only 2 games earning $5 million in prize money, and 75% of the field will play only 4 games earning $6 million in prize money.
MP & Silva's role
Americas Champions League was created by MP & Silva, the world’s leading sports international media rights company specializing in the management and distribution of world-class sporting events, as well as offering media production and sponsorship activation and consultancy. The MP & Silva rights portfolio covers some of the most iconic sports properties in the world, including Europe’s top football leagues (English Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and more), Grand Slam tennis, F1 motor racing, NBA, and NFL.
MP & Silva has assembled a world-class executive team with vast knowledge of sports and specifically the football markets throughout the Americas.
Controversies
Some news articles claimed that the creation of the Americas Champions League would force the dissolution of Copa Libertadores. This assumption was denied by Riccardo Silva in different interviews in Latin America. He stated that ACL organizers are working under the premises and the desire that Copa Libertadores will remain. It is a very traditional competition in South America and there is no reason for it to disappear. Although the football calendar in South America is very busy, they are proposing dates for the Americas Champions League matches, without conflicting with Libertadores and with no other competition.
Another controversy around the Americas Champions League is the distance and travelling time. However, travel and distances are always a concern in every competition. This is already a challenge seen in the United States and Canada for league play (MLS, NFL, NHL etc). It is the same in South America for Copa Libertadores, when Mexican teams need to play in Buenos Aires. The same also happens in Europe when Portuguese teams need to play in Kazakhstan for UEFA Champions League. This issue will certainly be addressed through careful, analytical planning and scheduling.

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