In soccer in the Western Hemisphere, North is North and South is South and they shall rarely meet on the soccer field.

That was the word Tuesday from Concacaf, the sport’s governing body for the North, Central American and Caribbean region, which said that its club teams would no longer take part in the Copa Sudaméricana — primarily because the competition will put a strain on its regional club teams and conflict with the Concacaf Champions League, which will begin its second tournament late in July.

The tournament is the second-tier event, kind of the South American poor sister to the Copa Libertadores — much as the Copa Europa (previously known as the UEFA Cup) is to the Champions League.

‘We regret that Mexico’s Copa Subaméricana designees Monterrey and Puebla will not participate in the tournament due to Concacaf’s decision,” Chuck Blazer, the group’s general secretary, said in a statement. “However, we hope that both teams will have the opportunity to participate in future Concacaf competitions. By contrast Concacaf is committed to the 2010 Copa Libertadores and will utilize Interliga to qualify teams. In November the Executive Committee will review Concacaf’s future participation in the Libertadores.”

The InterLiga tournament sends Mexican clubs to the Copa Libertadores. As recently as May, the Mexican federation said it would no longer play in the Copa Libertadores, or in the next Copa América tournament, in Argentina in 2011, as a guest team because of the adverse reaction in South America to the outbreak of the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, in Mexico. Then in early June, Mexican officials did an about-face, saying a host of misunderstandings and hurt feelings that arose when teams from Uruguay and Brazil refused to travel to Mexico had been cleared up.

While two Mexican clubs — San Luis and Guadalajara — are expected to participate in the Copa Libertadores next season, the president of the Mexican federation, Justino Compean, told Goal.com that the situation could change after those meetings in November that Blazer mentioned.

“I think that it is being done to protect the tournaments of Concacaf, and we belong to Concacaf,” Compean said. “We have been very fortunate for a long time to be able to participate in tournaments of both, which is unusual, and sooner or later the time was going to come when Concacaf asked us to focus more on their tournaments. Obviously it is sad for some teams.”

The Copa Sudaméricana has existed in its current incarnation since 2002, and teams from Concacaf, mostly Mexico, have participated since 2005. A Mexican club, Pachuca in 2006, won the championship.

One team from Major League Soccer, D.C. United, has played in the tournament. In 2005, after winning the Concacaf Champions Cup, United played a home-and-home series in the Round of 16 against Universidad Católica of Chile, losing the return match by 3-2 after playing to a 1-1 draw in Washington. In 2007, United returned to the tournament and was ousted in the Round of 16 by Guadalajara.

A number of teams from the Concacaf region have played in Copa América, the South American championship for national teams over the years. That list includes Mexico, the United States, Costa Rica, Honduras and Japan. Japan and Mexico will play in the event again in 2011.

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