On 14 May 2020, CONMEBOL announced the candidate venues for the 2021, 2022 and 2023 club competition finals.[2][3] On 13 May 2021, CONMEBOL's Council decided that the final would be played at the Estadio Monumental Isidro Romero Carbo in Guayaquil, Ecuador on 29 October 2022.[4]
On 25 November 2021, CONMEBOL announced the abolition of the away goals rule in all of its club competitions including the Copa Libertadores, which had been used since 2005.[5] Accordingly, if in a two-legged tie two teams scored the same number of aggregate goals, the winner of the tie would not be decided by the number of away goals scored by each team but by a penalty shoot-out.
Location of teams of the 2022 Copa Libertadores. Brown: Group A; Red: Group B; Orange: Group C; Yellow: Group D; Green: Group E; Blue: Group F; Purple: Group G; Pink: Group H; White: Play-off rounds.
The draw for the qualifying stages was held on 20 December 2021, 12:00 PYST (UTC−3), at the CONMEBOL Convention Centre in Luque, Paraguay.[19][22]
Teams were seeded by their CONMEBOL Clubs ranking as of 16 December 2021 (shown in parentheses),[23] taking into account the following three factors:[24]
Performance in the last 10 years, taking into account Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana results in the period 2012–2021.
Historical coefficient, taking into account Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana results in the period 1960–2011 and 2002–2011 respectively.
Local tournament champion, with bonus points awarded to domestic league champions of the last 10 years.
For the first stage, the six teams were drawn into three ties (E1–E3), with the teams from Pot 1 hosting the second leg.[25]
For the second stage, the 16 teams were drawn into eight ties (C1–C8), with the teams from Pot 1 hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn into the same tie, excluding the three winners of the first stage, which will be seeded in Pot 2 and whose identity will not be known at the time of the draw, and may be drawn into the same tie with another team from the same association.
COL The identity of the team Colombia 3 was not known at the time of the draw, and was seeded in Pot 2.
For the third stage, the eight winners of the second stage were allocated without any draw into the following four ties (G1–G4), with the team in each tie with the higher CONMEBOL ranking hosting the second leg.
Second stage winner C1 vs. Second stage winner C8
Second stage winner C2 vs. Second stage winner C7
Second stage winner C3 vs. Second stage winner C6
Second stage winner C4 vs. Second stage winner C5
The draw for the group stage was held on 25 March 2022, 12:00 PYST (UTC−3), at the CONMEBOL Convention Centre in Luque, Paraguay.[20][26]
For the group stage, the 32 teams were drawn into eight groups (Groups A–H) of four containing a team from each of the four pots. The defending champions Palmeiras were directly assigned as the top seed of Group A (position A1). The remaining teams were distributed into four pots according to their CONMEBOL Clubs ranking. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group, excluding the four winners of the third stage, which were allocated to Pot 4 and could be drawn into the same group with another team from the same association.
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 27 May 2022, 12:00 PYT (UTC−4) at the CONMEBOL Convention Center in Luque, Paraguay.[21][27] For the round of 16, the 16 teams were drawn into eight ties (A–H) between a group winner (Pot 1) and a group runner-up (Pot 2), with the group winners hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association or the same group could be drawn into the same tie (Regulations Article 2.2.3.2).[1]
In the qualifying stages, each tie is played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If tied on aggregate, extra time is not played, and a penalty shoot-out is used to determine the winner (Regulations Article 2.4.3).[1]
The qualifying stages are structured as follows:
First stage (6 teams): The three winners of the first stage advance to the second stage to join the 13 teams which are given byes to the second stage.
Second stage (16 teams): The eight winners of the second stage advance to the third stage.
Third stage (8 teams): The four winners of the third stage advance to the group stage to join the 28 direct entrants. The four teams eliminated in the third stage enter the Copa Sudamericana group stage.
In the group stage, each group is played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The teams are ranked according to the following criteria: 1. Points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss); 2. Goal difference; 3. Goals scored; 4. Away goals scored; 5. CONMEBOL ranking (Regulations Article 2.4.2).[1]
In the round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals, each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, with the higher-seeded team hosting the second leg (Regulations Article 2.2.3.2). If tied on aggregate, extra time was not played, and a penalty shoot-out was used to determine the winners (Regulations Article 2.4.3).
The final was played as a single match at a venue pre-selected by CONMEBOL, with the higher-seeded team designated as the "home" team for administrative purposes (Regulations Article 2.2.3.5). If tied after regulation, 30 minutes of extra time would be played. If still tied after extra time, a penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winners (Regulations Article 2.4.4).
Qualified teams
The winners and runners-up of each of the eight groups in the group stage advanced to the round of 16.
Starting from the round of 16, the teams were seeded according to their results in the group stage, with the group winners (Pot 1) seeded 1–8, and the group runners-up (Pot 2) seeded 9–16.
Flamengo (3rd title)
