Copa Sudamericana

This article is about the secondary, premier South American club tournament. For the competition trophy, see Copa Sudamericana (trophy).
"Sudamericana" redirects here. For the extinct mammal, see Sudamerica.
CONMEBOL Sudamericana
Organizing bodyCONMEBOL
Founded2002; 22 years ago (2002)
RegionSouth America
Number of teams56 (from 10 associations)
Qualifier forRecopa Sudamericana
Copa Libertadores
UEFA–CONMEBOL Club Challenge
Related competitionsCopa Libertadores
(1st tier)
Current champion(s)Argentina Racing (1st title)
Most successful club(s)
Television broadcastersList of broadcasters
Websiteconmebolsudamericana.com
2024 Copa Sudamericana

The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkopa suðameɾiˈkana]; Portuguese: Copa Sul-Americana [ˈkɔpɐ ˈsulɐmeɾiˈkɐnɐ]), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002.[1] It is the second-most prestigious club competition in South American football. CONCACAF clubs were invited between 2004 and 2008.[2] The CONMEBOL Sudamericana began in 2002, replacing the separate competitions Copa Merconorte and Copa Mercosur (that had replaced Copa CONMEBOL) by a single competition.[1][2] Since its introduction, the competition has been a pure elimination tournament with the number of rounds and teams varying from year to year.

The CONMEBOL Sudamericana is considered a merger of defunct tournaments such as the Copa CONMEBOL, Copa Mercosur and Copa Merconorte.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] The winner of the Copa Sudamericana becomes eligible to play in the Recopa Sudamericana, the South American supercup.[10] They gain entry to the next edition of the Copa Libertadores, South America's premier club competition, and also contest the UEFA–CONMEBOL Club Challenge, a friendly cup against the winners of the UEFA Europa League. Previously they also competed in the J.League Cup / Copa Sudamericana Championship against the winner of the Japanese League Cup.

The reigning champion of the competition is Argentine club Racing, who defeated Brazilian club Cruzeiro in the most recent final.

Argentine clubs have accumulated the most victories with ten while containing the largest number of winning teams, with eight clubs. The cup has been won by 18 clubs. Argentine clubs Boca Juniors and Independiente as well as Brazilian club Athletico Paranaense and Ecuadorian clubs Independiente del Valle and LDU Quito are the most successful clubs in the competition's history, having won the tournament twice, with Boca Juniors being the only one to achieve victories back-to-back, in 2004 and 2005.

  1. ^ a b "SOUTH AMERICAN COMPETITIONS". RSSSF. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
  2. ^ a b "Nissan South American Cup". conmebol.com. Retrieved 28 March 2010. [dead link‍]
  3. ^ Copa Conmebol at the official page of Conmebol.com Archived 2013-07-18 at the Wayback Machine CONMEBOL Retrieved May 18, 2010.
  4. ^ CONMEBOL Cup / UEFA Cup Archived 2015-10-31 at the Wayback Machine RSSSF Retrieved May 18, 2010.
  5. ^ Información sobre la Copa Conmebol Archived 2009-01-24 at the Wayback Machine infofutbolonline.com Retrieved May 18, 2010
  6. ^ THE BEST CLUB OF SOUTH AMERICA RSSSF Archived 2010-02-01 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved January 9, 2014
  7. ^ Globo Esporte Archived 2009-05-12 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved December 10, 2007
  8. ^ Terra Brazil Archived 2013-09-30 at the Wayback Machine- Retrieved December 5, 2012
  9. ^ Santander Fútbol Archived 2013-10-21 at the Wayback Machine- Retrieved July 16, 2012
  10. ^ "Recopa Sudamerica". CONMEBOL. Retrieved 28 March 2010.[dead link‍]