The Copa Libertadores

The Copa Libertadores is the leading club competition for teams from the ten CONMEBOL member associations in South America. In the current format, 47 clubs enter the competition overall, with 32 clubs reaching the group stage after direct qualification and earlier qualifying rounds.

The name Libertadores refers to the liberators of South America, and the tournament's full name links the competition to the continent's history and identity. Since it began in 1960, the Libertadores has become one of the strongest and most prestigious continental club competitions in world football.

Independiente of Argentina is the most successful club in its history, with seven titles. Argentine and Brazilian clubs have together won most editions, although clubs from Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia, Chile and Ecuador have also won the trophy.

The main competition begins with a group stage of 32 clubs in eight groups of four. Each team plays the other three in its group both home and away — six matches per club. The top two from every group go through to the round of 16, where the knockout stage begins.

From the round of 16 to the semi-finals, ties are played over two legs, one at each club's home ground. The team with the better aggregate score goes through. If the aggregate score is level, the tie goes directly to a penalty shoot-out. Away goals are not used as a tie-breaker.

The final is different. Since 2019, it has been a single match held at a neutral venue chosen by CONMEBOL. If the final is level after 90 minutes, extra time is played, followed by a penalty shoot-out if the teams are still level. Before 2019, the final was also played over two legs.

Four places in the group stage are reserved for clubs that come through the earlier qualifying rounds. These rounds usually take place before the group stage and involve lower-seeded qualifiers from across CONMEBOL's member associations. Each tie is played over two legs, with the winners progressing.

The earlier rounds give lower-seeded qualifiers a route into the group stage. They also allow CONMEBOL to include more clubs from across South America without expanding the main group stage beyond 32 teams.

The competition usually begins in late January or early February with the first qualifying round and ends with the final in November. The group stage is normally played in the first half of the year, with the knockout rounds taking place later in the season.

This calendar works because many South American domestic competitions are organised around the calendar year rather than the August-to-May season used in much of Europe. Libertadores matches are fitted around domestic league fixtures, domestic cups and international windows.

The current competition involves clubs from all ten CONMEBOL member associations. Brazil and Argentina receive the largest allocations, while the other associations usually receive fewer places. Some clubs enter directly into the group stage, while others start in the qualifying rounds.

Places generally go to the highest finishers in domestic league competitions, plus the winners of major domestic cup competitions where those cups are part of the qualification route. The exact rules vary by country and by season, but the basic principle is consistent: strong domestic performance earns entry into the Libertadores.

The previous season's Copa Libertadores winner also qualifies automatically for the next edition's group stage. The Copa Sudamericana winner is also given a place in the following Libertadores, which links CONMEBOL's two major club competitions.

The Copa Libertadores winner qualifies automatically for the next FIFA Intercontinental Cup. In the current format, the South American champion enters at the Derby of the Americas stage, where it plays the Concacaf Champions Cup winner for the right to continue in the bracket.

The Libertadores winner also earns a place in the next FIFA Club World Cup cycle under the current qualification system. The Club World Cup is FIFA's expanded 32-team intercontinental club tournament, held every four years.

Within CONMEBOL itself, the Libertadores winner plays the Copa Sudamericana winner in the Recopa Sudamericana, usually a two-legged home-and-away tie held early the following year. The Libertadores winner also qualifies automatically for the next edition of the Libertadores group stage, so a successful run guarantees a place in the next year's main competition.

The competition was launched in 1960 to give South American clubs a continental tournament equivalent to the European Cup. Peñarol of Uruguay won the inaugural edition, beating Olimpia of Paraguay in the final. The early decades were dominated by Uruguayan and Argentine clubs, with Brazilian clubs becoming a stronger force from the 1970s onwards.

The competition went through several expansions across the 20th century, from an initial small tournament for national champions to the larger group-and-knockout structure used today. Mexican clubs took part as invited guests between 1998 and 2016, although no Mexican club ever won the trophy. Since 2017 the competition has returned to a South-American-only field, with the move to a single-match final at a neutral venue in 2019 the most significant recent change to the format.

The Copa Libertadores Femenina is CONMEBOL's equivalent women's club competition and has been held annually since 2009. CONMEBOL also runs an under-20 Libertadores for youth teams, although that competition has been staged less consistently.

These are separate tournaments with their own calendars and formats. The women's competition, in particular, is normally played in a shorter centralised tournament rather than across the long home-and-away calendar used by the men's Libertadores.