Eight clubs (two from Mexico, USA and one from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador) will be seeded directly to the group stage of the CONCACAF Champions League. Sixteen teams will be paired in eight home-and-away matchups in the preliminary round which will take place between July 28-30 and August 6-8, 2009.

The preliminary round winners will join the eight seeded teams in the group stage that consists of four groups of four teams each. Each team will play two matches (one home, one away) against each of the other teams in its group, in a round-robin system, from August 18 until October 22, 2009.

The top two clubs from each of the four groups will advance to the elimination stage. These eight teams will be drawn into four quarterfinal pairings to play home-and-away matchups in February 2010. The four quarterfinal winners will then play in two semifinal home-and-away matchups in March and April 2010 with the two semifinal winners squaring-off in the home-and-away CONCACAF Champions League final in late April 2010.

The CONCACAF Champions League winner will qualify as the CONCACAF representative to the 2010 edition of the FIFA Club World Cup.