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The Copa Libertadores de América, officially the Copa Santander Libertadores de América for sponsorship reasons, is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the most prestigious club competition in South American football. Despite being a South American competition, Mexican teams have been invited since 1998. The name of the tournament is an homage to the Libertadores (Portuguese and Spanish for Liberators), the main leaders of the independence wars of Latin America. The competition has had several different formats since its inception. Initially, only the champions of South America participated. In 1966, the runner-ups of South American began to compete and today at least three clubs per country compete in the tournament while Argentina and Brazil each have five clubs qualify. Traditionally, a group stage has always been used but the amount of teams per group has varied several times. The tournament consists of six stages. In the present format, it begins in early-February with one knockout qualifying round known as the first stage. The 6 surviving teams join 26 teams in the second stage, in which there are eight groups consisting of four teams each. The eight group winners and eight runners-up enter the final four stages, better known as the knockout stages, which ends with the finals in June or July. The current champion is Argentine club Estudiantes de La Plata, while Argentine club Independiente is the most successful club in the cup history, having won the tournament seven times. The cup has been won by 22 different clubs and won consecutively by six clubs, the last to have been Boca Juniors in 2001.
[edit] HistoryMain article: History of the Copa Libertadores   Twelve years before the first official Copa Libertadores, an international club competition was set up containing representatives (often the league champion) from seven different South American countries. This was the South American Club Championship 1948, played in a league format in Santiago, Chile, and won by Vasco da Gama. It has been recognised as the precursor to the Copa Libertadores by CONMEBOL. The first official Copa Libertadores was finally held in 1960 and won by Peñarol of Uruguay. As of 2008, 22 different teams have won the cup, within which, the Argentinian side Independiente, seven time champion, including four consecutive titles between 1972 and 1975, are currently the most successful club in the cup history. Another Argentine side Estudiantes de La Plata became the first club to win the Cup for three consecutive years between 1968 and 1970. Since then, only Independiente has achieved this feat, winning four titles between 1972 and 1975. Estudiantes and Independiente are also the teams that played the most consecutive finals, four. Over the years the competition has kept alive a healthy sporting rivalry between the competing countries, especially between Brazil and Argentina, Argentina and Uruguay, Uruguay and Brazil, Colombia and Argentina, Peru and Chile. Episodes of violence are not rare and the pressure on the players on the field is tremendous. From 1998 to 2007, the Copa Libertadores was sponsored by Toyota Motor Corporation, which is why the name during this period was Copa Toyota Libertadores. [edit] Format[edit] Qualifying As of 2009, most teams qualify to the Copa Libertadores by winning half-year tournaments called Apertura and Clausura tournaments or by finishing among the top teams in their championship. The countries that use this format are Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay and Venezuela. Peru and Ecuador have developed new formats for qualification to the Copa Libertadores involving several stages. Brazil is the only South American league to use a European league format instead of the Apertura and Clausura format. However, one berth for the Copa Libertadores can be won by winning the league cup in Brazil. Uruguay and Mexico also employ a second tournament that qualifies for the Libertadores ("Liguilla Pre-Libertadores" since 1974 and InterLiga since 2004 respectively). The 2009 edition has the competitors distributed as follows:
[edit] StagesThe Cup has a qualifying round known as the first stage in which a number of clubs, currently 12, are paired in a series of two-legged knockout ties. The six survivors join 26 clubs in the second stage, in which they are divided into groups of four. The groups play in a league system, with each team playing home and away games against each team in their group. The top two teams from each group are then drawn into the knockout stage, which consists of two-legged knockout ties. From that point, the competition proceeds with two-legged knockout ties to quarterfinals, semifinals, and the finals. Between 1960 and 1987 the previous winners did not enter the competition until the semi-final stage (which was 2 groups of 3 teams each one), making it much easier to retain the cup. [edit] RulesNote that unlike European club competitions, the Copa Libertadores historically did not use extra time or away goals to decide a tie that was level on aggregate. From 1960 to 1987, two-legged ties were decided on points (teams would be awarded 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss), without taking goal difference into consideration. If both teams were level on points after two legs, a third match would be played at a neutral site. Goal difference would only come into play if the third match was drawn. If the third match did not produce an immediate winner a penalty shootout was used to determine a winner. From 1988 through 2004, ties were decided on aggregate goals, with an immediate penalty shootout if the tie was level on aggregate after full time of the second leg. Starting with the 2005 event, CONMEBOL began to use the away goals rule. The exception is in the finals, where the away goals rule is not used and extra time is played if the tie is level. [edit] Tournament resultsMain article: List of Copa Libertadores winners
[edit] Statistics[edit] By club[edit] By country
[edit] TopscorersMain article: Copa Libertadores de América Topscorers The competition's all-time top goalscorer is still striker Alberto Spencer of Ecuador. He played as a striker for Peñarol during their golden age in the 60s, scoring 48 goals in 70 games, and for Barcelona of Guayaquil, scoring 6 goals in 7 games. In total, he scored 54 goals in the Copa Libertadores. Despite this, he remains a relatively unknown figure outside of South America, thus providing an excellent contrast to George Best, who despite his abilities was relatively little-known outside of the United Kingdom.
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