History of Copa Libertadores

Confederation:

Founded:

1959

Region:

South America

Number of Teams:

Level:

Current champions:

Boca Juniors (ARG)

Sponsors:

Official website:

History

1 Copa Libertadores de America
2 History
3 Team Honours
4 Past Winners
- 4.1 Most Successful Teams
5 Important Links
6 References

Copa Libertadores de America

Copa Libertadores is the main club competition in the South American Continent. Organized by CONMEBOL – Confederation Sudamericana de Futbol – (in English South American Football Confederation) it is the equivalent of the UEFA Champions League and it had it’s first official edition in 1960. Since then the most important clubs of the continent have dreamed of claiming the title of Copa Libertadores de America and having a chance to play against the best team of Europe, and most recently - from other continents too – to be named the Best Club Team in the World

History

The Early Years
The first South American Clubs Championship, called Taça America del Sur, happened in 1948 in Santiago, Chile. Seven countries were represented by their 1947 League Champions and that is considered the predecessor (recongnized by CONMEBOL) of what, 12 years later would become the Copa Libertadores de America (America’s Liberators Cup) as we know it.

Copa Libertadores de America had its project approved in 1959 and counted with the support of UEFA. The project included the idea of an intercontinental competition in which the European Champions would play the South American one to claim the title of the best club in the world. The name of the competiton was still not the one we know now. Copa de los Campeones de America (America’s Champions Cup) would only change its name to Copa Libertadores de America in 1965 to honor the heroes in the independence process of the countries of the continent.

Peñarol from Uruguay became the first Copa Libertadores Champions in 1960 after a 2-1 aggregate victory over Club Olimpia from Paraguay. In 1961 the Uruguayans would repeat the success and with the same aggregate score they won back-to-back, this time beating S.E. Palmeiras from Brazil.

In 1962 and 1963 the continent was able to watch the genius of Pelé help a great Santos FC side win their back-to-back titles beating Peñarol and Boca Juniors (ARG) respectively.

In 1965 the proposal of the Uruguayan Football Federation was accepted and in 1966 Copa Libertadores was played not only by the champions of each league but also their runners-up increasing the number of participants from 9 in 1965 to 17 in 1966. Brazil and Colombia refused to send their teams to participate in that edition as a protest against the format changing. Both countries didn’t agree with the runners-up participation in the Cup.

The Argentine Supremacy begins
From 1967 to 1978 Copa Libertadores was dominated by Argentine clubs. Independiente – the club that won more Libertadores with 7 titles – claimed 4 in row (1972 to 1975) in that period followed by Estudiantes de la Plata with 3 (1968 to 1970), Boca Juniors with 2 (1977 and 1978) and Racing Club with 1 (1967). An amazing total of 10 titles in 12 years that was crowned with Argentina winning their first FIFA World Cup in 1978.

The only two teams that dared to interfere with Argentina’s continental club power in that period was Nacional from Uruguay (1971) and Cruzeiro from Brazil (1976).

Even though Argentina and Brazil dominate Copa Libertadores nowadays, 18 different clubs from 6 different countries were able to claim the title since 1979.

Argentina is also the country with the most number of Copa Libertadores titles altogether with 21 and it will take more than a few titles for the second place, Brazil, to threat that dominancy. Brazilian clubs claimed the continent supremacy 13 tmes. In 3rd place is Uruguay with 8, Paraguay comes in 4th with 3, Colombia with 2 is in the 5th position and Chile comes right after with 1 title. Ecuador, Peru and Mexico still didn’t have the change to become Copa Libertadores Champions.

The 2008 Edition
The 2008 edition of Copa Libertadores started with a new sponsor: the Spanish bank Santander and for that purpose this year’s competition is called Copa Santander Libertadores de America.

It started with 38 clubs, 26 of them directly in the group stage and 12 had to play a preliminary two-legged round. The 32 clubs were them put into 8 groups of 4 and they play each other twice in a home and away system to decide the ones who will move to the next round.

Each country follows its own standards to determine the clubs who will participate in the competition.

Seven countries that use Apertura and Clausura system sent their respective champions. Argentina sends the best ranked teams in an aggregate table and will also have Boca Juniors because they were last year’s winners. Brazil’s European style league allows the country to send its 4 top placed teams plus the Brazilian Cup winners. A “mini-league” decides who will represent Uruguay and Ecuador and Mexico sends its best overall team and the two finalists of a tournament called Interliga.

The lowest ranked team from each country’s selection are the ones who play in the preliminary round.

The 8 groups of the qualifying round for the 2008 Copa Santander Libertadores are organized like this (listed in alphabetical order):