FC Dallas to participate in Leagues Cup starting in 2023

The new format will pit every MLS team against every Liga MX team in a mid-summer tournament.

Major League Soccer and Liga MX aren’t merging just yet, but today’s news sure feels like a step in that direction. The two leagues, along with Concacaf announced a new format to the now annual Leagues Cup tournament that takes place over the summer.

Starting in 2023, every single club from MLS, including FC Dallas, and Liga MX will participate in a World Cup-style Leagues Cup. Both leagues will pause their season for one month to participate in this new collective tournament.

Not only will some regional supremacy be at stake but so will three Concacaf Champions League spots be on the line.

This tournament sounds wild. Both leagues will pause their seasons in the middle of the summer to do this tournament, which will take place in the US and Canada (right now they aren’t going to play games at Liga MX venues, which kind of stinks).

The tournament is now sanctioned by Concacaf, which is how they’re getting the top three auto bids into the Champions League. The winner gets automatically into the Round of 16 in the CCL, while the next two will be placed in qualifiers.

This is certainly a bold move by the leagues. On one hand, it is a nice way to get them to play against one another without some scheduling issues but on the other hand, it will cause a ton of schedule congestion when you factor in that the US Open Cup will also be a part of the calendar.

What do you all make of this new tournament? Are you excited that FC Dallas will get to play against some Liga MX teams?