Change to the CONCACAF Champions League format was needed, but Monday’s adjustments to the competition format didn’t provide enough change required to send an overwhelming sense of excitement throughout the region.

The North American governing body revamped the tournament to include 31 clubs, not 24 like the old format, with two phases and only knockout-style matchups between continental foes. As they usually do, clubs from Major League Soccer and Liga MX benefited the most as they kept their four allotted slots. Clubs from the United States and Mexico will make up half of Phase 2, and a fifth team from MLS will be in there from the Canadian Championship assuming Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal wins that competition.

Also automatically included in what CONCACAF is calling Phase 2 are the champions from Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Panama. The 15th spot will be awarded to the Caribbean Cup winner and spot number 16 belongs to the winner of Phase 1, which is essentially a Europa League style tournament for clubs from Central America.

The new format is some type of an improvement over the old one, as seven more clubs get a chance to claim continental glory, albeit a small chance for most of the minnows getting the extra invites. The main stage of the tournament is condensed from February to May with eight extra teams compared to the old tournament format.

But that’s where the positives end with the new format of the Champions League. CONCACAF tried to improve on a broken system, but instead of replacing beat-up old tires with a new set, it just patched up the holes before they appear again, and they most certainly will given the structure of the competition.

Many clubs were hoping to get a full switch in the Champions League calendar that adjusted to the majority of the league calendars in North America. Instead, it still kept the MLS clubs at a disadvantage with the February start of Phase 2. The four, or five, MLS teams involved will start their CCL campaigns before the league season even begins.

That will put some of the MLS sides at a disadvantage against the Mexican sides already in season. Of course, you could argue the MLS teams know what the situation is and should be properly prepared regardless of the opponent, who in all reality probably won’t be Mexican teams in the round of 16. But it still widens the schedule further for MLS clubs that barely have time off during the offseason in the first place.

CONCACAF could’ve solved this problem by moving Phase 2 back a month to March, playing the round of 16 matches in the opening weeks of the month and then play the quarterfinals and semifinals in due time across April, or even early May to set up a final in the middle of May that would still fit the proposed timeline. Sure, it doesn’t seem ideal for MLS teams, but it still gives them an extra week or two to gel as a unit and prepare for the new campaign without rushing into it.

The new format also diminishes the impact on teams outside of the United States and Mexico. It puts more emphasis on winning the domestic league, which can be seen as good for competition in some aspects, but, for a country like Costa Rica, it will take away its impact on the continental scene. If the second-place team from Costa Rica wants to qualify for Phase 2, it will have to win four home-and-away series in Phase 1 and then do the same in Phase 2 to win the Grand Final.

It’s a near impossible task for even the strongest teams in Phase 1 to advance into Phase 2 and win the entire competition. The new format near guarantees a team from the United States or Mexico will win the whole thing just with the sheer numbers advantage they have in Phase 2.

Head-t0-head knockout matchups in both phases are a step in the right direction from the old group stage where three teams were assigned together and played a schedule that varied from group to group. But that is one of the few upgrades that will make the new-look Champions League better.

Ultimately, CONCACAF is punishing the smaller clubs by only letting domestic champions from Central America qualify for Phase 2 and making 16 sides fight for the one remaining spot while more than half of the field in the latter competition will be populated by high-spending clubs in the United States, Canada and Mexico.MLS clubs will suffer because the Phase 2 schedule doesn’t fall in line with the domestic calendar, and it wouldn’t be a shock to see some of the teams drop early in the competition’s second stage.

Once again, CONCACAF tried to make things better, but in all reality, they just plugged a hole in something that will continue to face direct criticism from many in the region.