CONCACAF Champions League details announced

NEW YORK — Chivas USA, D.C. United, Houston and New England will be the United States' representatives in the initial CONCACAF Champions League.

The 24-team tournament, modeled after the highly successful European Champions League, replaces the CONCACAF Champions Cup as the club competition of soccer's North and Central American and Caribbean region.

D.C. United and Houston -- Major League Soccer's regular-season points leader and league champion in 2007 -- are among eight teams that qualify directly for the first round, which opens Sept. 16-18. Chivas USA and New England are among 16 teams in a preliminary round to be played Aug. 26-28 and Sept. 2-4.

Atlante and Pumas UNAM have earned two of Mexico's four berths and will be joined by the top two teams in the Clausura. The tournament also will include two teams each from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama; and one apiece from Canada, Belize and Nicaragua. Three teams will qualify from the Caribbean.

The top two teams in each of four first-round groups advance to the knockout stage, in which each round will be decided by home-and-home, total-goal series. The winner of the final, to be played in April, qualifies for the FIFA Club World Cup in December 2009.