Wikipedia

Copa Merconorte

The Copa Merconorte (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkopa meɾkoˈnoɾte]) was an international football competition organized by CONMEBOL from 1998 to 2001 by clubs from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela and starting in 2000 clubs from the CONCACAF confederation were invited including Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States. The competition ran alongside the Copa Mercosur, which was based on the actual Mercosur economic bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, but Copa Mercosur also included clubs from Chile.[1]

Copa Merconorte
Organizer(s)CONMEBOL
Founded1998
Abolished2001; 25 years ago (2001)
RegionSouth America
North America
Teams16
Related competitionsCopa Mercosur
Most championshipsColombia Atl. Nacional
(2 titles)

Teams did not directly qualify for this competition. Instead, the aim was to generate profits through the television contracts by inviting the most marketable clubs from each country.[2] Therefore, participation was based on invitation of individual clubs.

All four editions were won by Colombian clubs. Atlético Nacional won it on two occasions (1998 and 2000). All the finalists in the first three editions were Colombian. In the fourth edition, Emelec became the first and only non-Colombian club to reach the finals of the Copa Merconorte.[1]

Both the Copa Merconorte and the Copa Mercosur were discontinued after the 2001 edition. A football competition to be called the Copa Pan-Americana would have replaced these two competitions for the 2002 season featuring clubs from both CONMEBOL and CONCACAF. That competition was first postponed, with plans to be played in 2003, then eventually cancelled. The Copa Pan-Americana would ultimately not come to fruition and that left the Copa Sudamericana as the successor of the Copa Merconorte and the Copa Mercosur.[3] Instead, a CONMEBOL competition called the Copa Sudamericana was created and had its first edition in 2002, and that competition is still played to this day.

Format

edit

Qualification

edit

Teams did not directly qualify for this competition through their national leagues. Participation was based solely on invitation.[1][2]

Tournament

edit

The 1998 and 1999 editions were played with twelve teams of the five corresponding CONMEBOL nations. The twelve teams were divided into three groups and each team meets the others in its group home and away in a round-robin format. The group winners and the best runner-up advanced to a semifinal stage. The semifinals were played over two legs and the winners advanced to the finals which were also played over two legs. In 1999, the Bolivian teams played a qualifying playoff before the first phase of Copa Merconorte.

The 2000 and 2001 editions were expanded to sixteen teams and divided into four groups. With the expansion of another group, only the group winners advanced to the semifinals.

Distribution

edit

The invitations and distribution of berths over the four seasons were as follows.

Association1998199920002001
Bolivia Bolivia
Colombia Colombia
Ecuador Ecuador
Peru Peru
Venezuela Venezuela
Costa Rica Costa Rica
  • No invitations
  • No invitations
  • No invitations
Mexico Mexico
  • No invitations
  • No invitations
United States United States
  • No invitations
  • No invitations
  • No invitations

Records and statistics

edit

List of finals

edit
Keys
Ed. Year Winners 1st.
leg		 2nd.
leg		 Playoff/
Agg.		 Runners-up Venue
(1st leg)		 City
(1st leg)		 Venue
(2nd leg)		 City
(2nd leg)
1
1998Colombia Atlético Nacional3–11–0
–
Colombia Deportivo CaliAtanasio GirardotMedellínPascual GuerreroCali
2
1999Colombia América de Cali1–21–0
5–3 (p)
Colombia Santa FePascual GuerreroCaliNemesio CamachoBogotá
3
2000Colombia Atlético Nacional0–02–1
–
Colombia MillonariosNemesio CamachoBogotáAtanasio GirardotMedellín
4
2001Colombia Millonarios1–11–1
3–1 (p)
Ecuador EmelecNemesio CamachoBogotáGeorge CapwellGuayaquil

Performances by club

edit
Club Titles Runners-up Seasons won Seasons runner-up
Colombia Atlético Nacional 201998, 2000
—
Colombia Millonarios 1120012000
Colombia América de Cali 101999
—
Colombia Deportivo Cali 01
—
1998
Ecuador Emelec 01
—
2001
Colombia Santa Fe 01
—
1999

Performances by nation

edit
Nation Winner Runner-up Total
Colombia 4 3 7
Ecuador 0 1 1

Participants (1998–2001)

edit

Berths per season (1998–2001)

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. 1 2 3 Stokkermans, Karel. "Copa Merconorte". The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  2. 1 2 Stokkermans, Karel. "South America – "Other Copas"". The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Archived from the original on 7 August 2013. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  3. ↑ Gonzalez, Miguel. "Copa Pan-Americana 2003". The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Copa_Merconorte&oldid=1353264211"