2026 Leagues Cup

The 2026 Leagues Cup will be the sixth edition of the Leagues Cup, an international club soccer tournament contested by Major League Soccer (MLS) and Liga MX clubs in North America. It will be held from August 4 to September 6, and feature 36 teams. Like the 2025 edition, only the top 18 MLS teams from the 2025 season qualified for the tournament. All 18 Liga MX clubs will participate.

Seattle Sounders FC are the defending champions, having won their first Leagues Cup title by defeating Inter Miami CF 3–0 in the 2025 final. This will be the first edition of the tournament to feature games played in Mexico.

Format

The tournament will consist of a group stage, known as "Phase One", and a knockout phase. During phase one, teams will play three games against teams in the other league (i.e., all games will be MLS vs Liga MX). The top four teams from each league will advance to the knockout stage, which will consist of quarterfinals, semifinals and a final. Like previous editions of the Leagues Cup, the top three clubs will qualify for the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

The 2026 tournament will follow the same format as the 2025 tournament. In Phase One, teams earn three points for a win in regulation, two points for a win in a penalty shoot-out, or one point for a loss in a penalty shoot-out. In the event two or more teams end the group stage tied on points, these tiebreakers in order will be used for ranking:

Greater number of wins in regular time. Greater goal difference. Greater number of goals scored. Fewer number of goals conceded. Fewer points in the team’s Fair Play Table. A draw organized by the Organizing Committee.

Teams

Thirty-six teams will participate in the Leagues Cup, including all 18 Liga MX teams and 18 out of 30 MLS teams. The 18 MLS teams qualified for Leagues Cup by reaching the 2025 MLS Cup playoffs.

Draw

To determine matchups, all teams were placed into a combined ranking that used the 2025 Supporters' Shield table for MLS teams and the most recent 34 matches in the 2025 Clausura and Apertura seasons for Liga MX teams. These teams were then divided into an East region and a West region based on geographical and performance criteria. Within each region, teams were assigned to tiers based on the combined ranking, with the restriction that each tier included three teams from each league.

Regional groupings

Finally, six "regional groupings" were formed by drawing one team per league from each of the three tiers of a region. Teams will play three matches against teams from their set who are not from their league.

Round dates

The schedule of the competition was as follows.

League phase

Table

Liga MX

See above for tie-breaking criteria.

Major League Soccer

See above for tie-breaking criteria.

Results

Knockout stage

The quarterfinal pairings will be determined as follows:

• MLS 1 vs Liga MX 4
• MLS 2 vs Liga MX 3
• MLS 3 vs Liga MX 2
• MLS 4 vs Liga MX 1

Bracket

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Third place playoff

The winners of the third place playoff will qualify as the last seed to the 2027 CONCACAF Champions Cup.

Final

Both clubs that make the final will qualify for the 2027 CONCACAF Champions Cup, with the winners qualifying directly to the round of 16.

External links