Copa Libertadores de América

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Image:Copa Toyota Libertadores.png The Copa Libertadores de América(also know as Copa Toyota Libertadores) (Portuguese:Taça Libertadores da América, English:"Liberators of the Americas Cup") is an international football cup competition played annually by the top clubs of South America. In recent years, top clubs from Mexico have also competed. The tournament is organized by the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol, better known as CONMEBOL in the English-speaking world, whose headquarters are located in Asunción, Paraguay.

The name of the tournament is an homage to the main leaders of the independence wars of Latin America: Simón Bolívar, Pedro de Alcantara, José de San Martín, Antonio José de Sucre, Bernardo O'Higgins and José Gervasio Artigas. It is one of the most prestigious club trophies in the sport along with Europe's Champions League.

1 Qualifying
2 Rules
3 History
4 Champions
5 Championships by team
6 Championships by Country
7 External links

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Qualifying

In the beginning, only the national champions of the major South American federations (namely Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay) would play in the Libertadores Cup, in the 1970s a second team from each country was allowed entry and also teams from Venezuela. The number of participants was later increased to 24, 28, 32 and now 38.

Teams are qualified for the Libertadores Cup by winning a national championship or by finishing among the first few teams in the championship. Brazil and Mexico are the only countries participating which employ a second tournament that qualifies for the Libertadores (in Brazil, Copa do Brasil, since 1989; in Mexico, the InterLiga since 2004).

The Cup has a preliminary round in which a number of clubs, currently 12, are paired in a series of two-legged knockout ties. The six survivors join the remaining clubs in the first round, in which they are divided into groups of four. The first-round groups play in a league system, with each team playing home and away against each other team. The top two teams from each group are then drawn in the second round, which consists of a two-legged knockout tie. From that point, the competition proceeds with two-legged knockout ties to quarterfinals, semifinals, and the final. Between 1960 and 1979 the previous winners did not enter the competition until the semi-final stage, making it much easier to retain the cup.

The 2005 edition will have the competitors distributed this way:

The previous year's champion
5 from Argentina
5 from Brazil
3 from Bolivia
3 from Chile
3 from Colombia
3 from Ecuador
3 from Mexico (up from 2 in 2004)
3 from Paraguay
3 from Peru
3 from Uruguay
3 from Venezuela

The lowest-ranked team from each country, plus the second lowest-ranked team from the nation of the previous year's champion, will enter the preliminary round, with the winners joining the other 26 teams in the main draw.

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Rules

Note 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, 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, either by a clear win or by goal difference, 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. Several times, the event would have had a different champion if it followed European rules. For example, if the away goals rule had been used the 2004 champions Colombian club Once Caldas, provided the same results would have taken place under these different circumstances, would have exited the competition in the second round, and would also have lost the final on away goals.

Starting with the 2005 event, CONMEBOL finally began to use the away goals rule, but still does not employ extra time.

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History

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 in Santiago, Chile, and was won by Vasco da Gama. It has been recognised as a precursor to the Copa Libertadores by the South American Federation, but is not counted as being as significant as the first official competition in 1960, created as a rival to the European Cup which had been competed for since 1955.

The first cup was won by Peñarol of Uruguay. As of 2005, 20 different teams have won the cup. The most successful club has been the Argentinian side Independiente, winners seven times including four in a row from 1972 to 1975.

The competition all-time goalscorer is still striker Alberto Spencer of Ecuador. He played as a striker for Peñarol during their golden age in the 60's, 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, with his 2005 death arguably giving him more worldwide publicity than he enjoyed in life. A common cause can be found in both cases: Neither played in a World Cup.

In the Cup, Brazilians complain that especially in the early years the referees were often biased against the Brazilian teams, and that other teams abuse of violence. Argentines typically answer this by remarking that the Brazilian teams were often uninterested in playing abroad.

Over the years the competition has kept alive a healthy sport rivalry between the competing countries, especially between Brazil and Argentina, Argentina and Uruguay, Uruguay and Brazil, and Bolivia and Chile. Unfortunately episodes of violence are not rare and the pressure for players on the field is tremendous.

Since 1998, the Copa Libertadores has been sponsored by the Toyota Motor Corporation, which is why the name Copa Toyota Libertadores is also used.

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Champions

Year	Final			Semifinalists
Year	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Semifinalists
1960 Details	Peñarol	1 - 0 1 - 1 2 - 1	Olimpia	San Lorenzo	Millonarios
1961 Details	Peñarol	1 - 0 1 - 1 2 - 1	Palmeiras	Olimpia	Independiente de Santa Fe
1962 Details	Santos F.C.	1 - 2 3 - 2 3 - 0	Peñarol	Universidad Católica	Nacional
1963 Details	Santos F.C.	3 - 2 2 - 1 5 - 3	Boca Juniors	Botafogo	Peñarol
1964 Details	Independiente	0 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0	Nacional	Santos F.C.	Colo-Colo
1965 Details	Independiente	1 - 0 1 - 3 4 - 1	Peñarol	Santos F.C.	Boca Juniors
1966 Details	Peñarol	2 - 0 2 - 3 4 - 2	River Plate	Independiente	Universidad Católica
1967 Details	Racing Club	0 - 0 0 - 0 2 - 1	Nacional	Universitario	Cruzeiro
1968 Details	Estudiantes L.P.	2 - 1 1 - 3 2 - 0	Palmeiras	Peñarol	Racing Club
1969 Details	Estudiantes L.P.	1 - 0 2 - 0 3 - 0	Nacional	Peñarol	Universidad Católica
1970 Details	Estudiantes L.P.	1 - 0 0 - 0 1 - 0	Peñarol	Universidad de Chile	River Plate
1971 Details	Nacional	1 - 0 0 - 1 2 - 0	Estudiantes L.P.	Palmeiras	Barcelona (Guayaquil)
1972 Details	Independiente	0 - 0 2 - 1 2 - 1	Universitario	Nacional	São Paulo
1973 Details	Independiente	1 - 1 0 - 0 2 - 1	Colo-Colo	San Lorenzo	Cerro Porteño
1974 Details	Independiente	1 - 2 2 - 0 1 - 0	São Paulo	Peñarol	Millonarios
1975 Details	Independiente	0 - 1 3 - 1 2 - 0	Unión Española	Rosario Central	Universitario
1976 Details	Cruzeiro	4 - 1 1 - 2 3 - 2	River Plate	LDU (Quito)	Independiente
1977 Details	Boca Juniors	1 - 0 0 - 1 0 - 0 (penalties 5-4)	Cruzeiro	Deportivo Cali	Internacional
1978 Details	Boca Juniors	0 - 0 4 - 0 4 - 0	Deportivo Cali	River Plate	Cerro Porteño
1979 Details	Olimpia	2 - 0 0 - 0 2 - 0	Boca Juniors	Independiente	Guarani
1980 Details	Nacional	2 - 0 0 - 0 2 - 0	Internacional	Olimpia	America de Cali
1981 Details	Flamengo	2 - 1 0 - 1 2 - 0	Cobreloa	Deportivo Cali	Nacional
1982 Details	Peñarol	0 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0	Cobreloa	Flamengo	Olimpia
1983 Details	Grêmio	1 - 1 2 - 1 3 - 2	Peñarol	Nacional	Estudiantes L.P.
1984 Details	Independiente	1 - 0 0 - 0 1 - 0	Grêmio	Nacional	Flamengo
1985 Details	Argentinos Juniors	1 - 0 0 - 1 1 - 1 (penalties 5-4)	America de Cali	El Nacional	Independiente
1986 Details	River Plate	2 - 1 1 - 0 3 - 1	America de Cali	Argentinos Juniors	Olimpia
1987 Details	Peñarol	0 - 2 2 - 1 2 - 0	America de Cali	Cobreloa	River Plate
1988 Details	Nacional	0 - 1 3 - 0 Agg: 3 - 1	Newell's Old Boys	America de Cali	San Lorenzo
1989 Details	Atlético Nacional	2 - 0 0 - 2 Agg: 2 - 2 (penalties 5-4)	Olimpia	Danubio	Internacional
1990 Details	Olimpia	2 - 0 1 - 1 Agg: 3 - 1	Barcelona (Guayaquil)	River Plate	Atlético Nacional
1991 Details	Colo-Colo	0 - 0 3 - 0 Agg: 3 - 0	Olimpia	Atlético Nacional	Boca Juniors
1992 Details	São Paulo	1 - 0 0 - 1 Agg: 1 - 1 (penalties 3-2)	Newell's Old Boys	America de Cali	Barcelona (Guayaquil)
1993 Details	São Paulo	5 - 1 0 - 2 Agg: 5 - 3	Universidad Católica	America de Cali	Cerro Porteño
1994 Details	Vélez Sársfield	0 - 1 1 - 0 Agg: 1 - 1 (penalties 5-3)	São Paulo	Atlético Junior	Olimpia
1995 Details	Grêmio	3 - 1 1 - 1 Agg: 4 - 2	Atlético Nacional	River Plate	Emelec
1996 Details	River Plate	0 - 1 2 - 0 Agg: 2 - 1	America de Cali	Grêmio	Universidad de Chile
1997 Details	Cruzeiro	0 - 0 1 - 0 Agg: 1 - 0	Sporting Cristal	Colo-Colo	>Racing Club
1998 Details	Vasco da Gama	2 - 0 2 - 1 Agg: 4 - 1	Barcelona (Guayaquil)	Cerro Porteño	River Plate
1999 Details	Palmeiras	0 - 1 2 - 1 Agg: 2 - 2 (penalties 4-3)	Deportivo Cali	River Plate	Cerro Porteño
2000 Details	Boca Juniors	2 - 2 0 - 0 Agg: 2 - 2 (penalties 4-3)	Palmeiras	Corinthians	Club América
2001 Details	Boca Juniors	1 - 0 0 - 1 Agg: 1 - 1 (penalties 3-1)	Cruz Azul	Palmeiras	Rosario Central
2002 Details	Olimpia	0 - 1 2 - 1 Agg: 2 - 2 (penalties 4-2)	São Caetano	Club América	Grêmio
2003 Details	Boca Juniors	2 - 0 3 - 1 Agg: 5 - 1	Santos F.C.	Independiente Medellín	America de Cali
2004 Details	Once Caldas	0 - 0 1 - 1 Agg: 1 - 1 (penalties 2-0)	Boca Juniors	River Plate	São Paulo
2005 Details	São Paulo	1 - 1 4 - 0 Agg: 5 - 1	Atlético Paranaense	River Plate	Guadalajara
2006 Details