Who has won the most CONCACAF Champions League titles?
Pumas host Seattle Sounders in the opening leg of the CONCACAF Champions League final, a competition in which Mexico has traditionally dominated.
UNAM host Seattle Sounders in the opening leg of the 2022 CONCACAF Champions League final at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City on April 27 with both sides seeking a first title in the competition since it was rebranded in 2008. The return leg will be held at Lumen Field in Seattle on May 4.
Pumas have three CONCACAF Champions’ Cup wins to their name (1980, 1982 and 1989), the previous iteration of the continental tournament providing a more eclectic mix of champions than the current format. In total, there were 26 different winners of the Champions Cup, from nine different countries: Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Suriname, Guatemala, Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago, the US and Haiti.
Liga MX domination of CONCACAF Champions League
Mexico dominated the previous format with 24 titles in total and 10 runners-up performances, followed by Costa Rica with six and five. In the CONCACAF Champions League, that hegemony is absolute. Mexican sides have won every edition of the tournament since it was rejigged in 2008-09, with all but four finals contested between Liga MX sides. The only exceptions have been 2011, 2015, 2018 and 2020, when Real Salt Lake, Montreal Impact, Toronto FC and LAFC, respectively, attempted to break Mexico’s stranglehold on the competition.
Overall, since the first edition of the Champions’ Cup in 1962, Liga MX sides have claimed 37 titles from 57 tournaments. The most successful side overall is Club América, who have won the title on seven occasions, followed by Cruz Azul (6), Pachuca (5) and reigning champions Monterrey (5).
On the other side of the coin, the wonderfully named Robinhood from Suriname hold the record for the most losing appearances in the final, with five.
Seattle on the cusp of MLS history
The task facing Seattle is huge: no US side has won the CONCACAF Champions League and only two – DC United in 1998 and LA Galaxy in 2000 – ever won the Champions’ Cup.
Also facing the MLS side is the current tournament’s top scorer, Juan Ignacio Dinenno, who has seven goals in the 2022 competition and bagged both for Pumas in an all-Liga MX semi-final against Cruz Azul.
Seattle beat New York City FC 4-2 on aggregate and will now have the chance to make MLS history in the final.