Key facts
- 2026 Leagues Cup is the sixth edition overall and fourth since the 2023 rebrand, featuring 36 MLS and Liga MX clubs
- New format mirrors the UEFA Champions League Swiss Model: a three-game league phase followed by a knockout stage
- Regional groupings of six teams (three MLS, three Liga MX) were set by an east-west draw seeded on a combined league table
- Top four finishers in each league’s table advance to the quarterfinals, paired one MLS club vs. one Liga MX club
- Both Leagues Cup finalists qualify for the CONCACAF Champions Cup Round of 16; the third-place finisher gets a CONCACAF Champions Cup first-round spot
- MLS clubs have won the last three Leagues Cup editions, with the Seattle Sounders winning the most recent title
What is changing for the 2026 tournament
The Leagues Cup returns for its sixth edition in 2026, the fourth since the competition was overhauled in 2023, bringing together 36 clubs from Major League Soccer and Liga MX. The event takes place after the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which is being hosted across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and it pauses regular league play for roughly a month so clubs from all three countries can take part.
For 2026, organizers have restructured the competition to resemble the UEFA Champions League’s Swiss Model, replacing the previous group-stage setup with a league phase followed by a knockout stage.
How the league phase works
Each club will play three matches during the league phase. Matchups were set by a draw that split teams into eastern and western regions to cut down on travel, with seeding based on a combined overall table merging both the MLS and Liga MX standings. Teams were placed into six-team regional groupings, with three clubs from each league per grouping arranged across three competitive tiers. Within each grouping, every Liga MX team faces every MLS team once.
After the league phase, results will be split back out by league so that an equal number of MLS and Liga MX clubs advance to the knockout rounds.
Knockout stage and continental stakes
The top four finishers in each league’s table move on to the quarterfinals. Each quarterfinal pairs one MLS club against one Liga MX club, with the format seeding the top MLS finisher against the fourth-place Liga MX finisher, and so on down the bracket.
Continental qualification is tied directly to how far clubs advance: both finalists earn spots in the CONCACAF Champions Cup Round of 16, while the third-place finisher secures a berth in the CONCACAF Champions Cup’s first round.
Recent Leagues Cup history
MLS clubs have won each of the last three editions of the tournament since it was rebranded to bring MLS and Liga MX sides into direct competition, a run organizers hoped would help the event supplant the U.S. Open Cup as the top domestic cup competition in the United States. In the most recent edition, the Seattle Sounders won the title, which carried a place in the following season’s CONCACAF Champions Cup.
Sources
Featured photo: Quintin Soloviev via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)