Leagues Cup Explained: What it is, where it is and why it matters. | OneFootball

This weekend sees the start of the 2024 Leagues Cup, a now annual competition between clubs from Major League Soccer and Liga MX, the top levels of soccer in the USA and Mexico respectively. Last year’s edition marked the arrival in MLS of a certain Lionel Messi, the Argentinian legend guiding Inter Miami to a maiden trophy since being founded in 2018 and ensuring that Tata Martino’s side became the first team from MLS to win the competition since its inception in 2019.

The tournament will once again take place entirely in the USA, the cause of much contention south of the border due to the advantage for MLS teams not having to travel. This has been the case since the competition’s beginnings, with the initial tournament in 2019 consisting of just eight teams, serving as a complement to the CONCACAF Champions Cup and supplementary competition for Liga MX teams who stopped competing in the Copa Libertadores ( South American equivalent of the Champions League) due to political turmoil within the Mexican FA as well as financial concerns in 2016.

The number of teams participating increased to 16 (Eight from each league) in 2020, although that year’s competition was postponed due to the COVID pandemic. The following year’s edition was the first to feature the extended 16-team format, before it was extended even further last year to include all 47 teams from MLS and Liga MX.

The format is similar to a FIFA World Cup, with group stages split into regions (East and west) before knockout stages that lead to a showpiece final. In the three editions of the tournament to date (2020 was not played due to the pandemic and 2022 due to concerns over fixture congestion ahead of the Qatar World Cup in November), two have been won by Liga MX teams, mirroring the strong dominance shown by Mexican outfits in the CONCACAF Champions Cup (Seattle Sounders in 2022 became the first and so far only MLS outfit to win the continental trophy). The prize for the top three teams in the competition is automatic entry into the Champions Cup.

Leagues Cup is a competition with plenty of detractors. As well as the Mexican disappointment at the entire tournament taking place in the USA, many supporters within the US itself harbour ill feeling towards the competition, seeing it as a cash grab for Apple TV (Exclusive rights holders of the competition as well as MLS itself) and also seeing the US Open Cup, America’s oldest cup competition and the equivalent of the FA Cup, being further diluted in terms of its importance to the US Soccer landscape. Indeed, increased fixture congestion has seen a number of MLS teams pull out of the historic Open Cup, causing outrage amongst fans who see the move as a betrayal of the traditions of the game.

Leagues Cup is here to stay. Due to a ligament injury, poster boy Lionel Messi looks set to miss the entire competition. Can Inter Miami defend their title without him?

Get Football | Jack McArdle