 Estadio Ciudad de los Deportes in Mexico City hosted the Final | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | February 3 – September 18 |
| Teams | 16 (from 7 associations) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  Pachuca (1st title) |
| Runners-up | Morelia |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 29 |
| Goals scored | 74 (2.55 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |  Alex Fernandes  Juan Arango (4 goals) |
← 2000 2003 → | |
The 2002 CONCACAF Champions' Cup was the 37th edition of the annual international club football competition held in the CONCACAF region (North America, Central America and the Caribbean), the CONCACAF Champions' Cup. It featured a league format with 16 clubs. As part of the expansion, the quarterfinal stage for the current Champions Cup was moved to the first months of the 2002. Those clubs that had already qualified for the quarterfinal stage of the 2001 CONCACAF Champions' Cup were moved directly into the new league format.
To facilitate the shift to the new cycle of qualifying rounds in the latter half of one year and the league stage in the first half of the following, the decision was taken to use the current competition as the transition period and fold those clubs already qualified into the league format.
In addition, the winner and runner-up of the 2001 CONCACAF Giants Cup (Club América and D.C. United) was also merged into the first edition to provide both of those clubs the opportunity to compete for a spot in the 2003 FIFA Club World Championship, as they would have done under the previous competition system. This was convenient, as one of the qualifying MLS teams, Miami Fusion F.C., was folded after the 2001 season despite winning the MLS Supporters' Shield that year.[1]
Club Comunicaciones, Tauro FC and Alajuelense, were elected as the top Central American non-qualifiers for the 2001 CONCACAF Champions Cup and finally the 2001 MLS Cup champions San Jose Earthquakes and the Mexican 2001 Invierno season champions Pachuca. Originally, four groups of four teams each, to be drawn in December or January, were planned, but at the end of November, CONCACAF changed plans once again and decided to play the tournament in a two-legs knock-out format, without a group stage. Because of this, the tournament's name was changed from CONCACAF Champions League back to CONCACAF Champions Cup.
The two finalists were supposed to qualify for the cancelled 2003 FIFA World Club Championship. Mexican club Pachuca beat countryfellow Morelia 1–0 in the final to win their first CONCACAF trophy.[2][3][1]
- ^ a b CONCACAF Champions' Cup 2002 on the RSSSF
- ^ 2002 Concacaf Cup [permanent dead link]
- ^ Legado Glorioso, Copa Concacaf 2002 by Héctor Gómez on Vavel, 2 Feb 2018