NEW YORK – Major League Soccer and LIGA MX Thursday announced that Leagues Cup will expand from eight teams to 16 teams in 2020 for the new tournament between the top two soccer leagues in North America.

Qualifying criteria for the eight MLS clubs will be determined by the top four teams in the 2019 MLS Eastern Conference regular season standings and the top four teams in the 2019 MLS Western Conference regular season standings that will not be participating in the 2020 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League.

The eight LIGA MX teams will include the 2019 Apertura champion, 2020 Clausura champion, 2019-20 Copa MX champion, and the next five best teams in the combined Apertura 2019-Clausura 2020 regular season standings that have not already qualified for Leagues Cup.

Leagues Cup kicks off this Tuesday, July 23 in Chicago and Los Angeles, and Wednesday, July 24 in Houston and Salt Lake City. The Leagues Cup Final will be played Sept. 18 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.