Copa CONMEBOL

The trophy awarded to champions
Organizing body	CONMEBOL
Founded	1992
Abolished	1999; 25 years ago (1999)
Region	South America
Number of teams	16
Related competitions	Copa Mercosur Copa Merconorte
Most successful club(s)	Atlético Mineiro (2 titles)

The Copa CONMEBOL (English: CONMEBOL Cup) was an annual football cup competition organized by CONMEBOL between 1992 and 1999 for South American football clubs.^[1] During its time of existence, it was a very prestigious South American club football contest, similar to the UEFA Cup. Clubs qualified for the competition based on their performance in their national leagues and cup competitions. Teams that were not able to qualify for the Copa Libertadores would play in this tournament. The tournament was played as a knockout cup. The tournament ended in 1999, following the expansion of the Copa Libertadores to 32 teams. The Copa Mercosur and Copa Merconorte, which both started in 1998, replaced the Copa CONMEBOL; both cups would later be merged in the current Copa Sudamericana.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}

The last champion of the competition was Talleres, while Atlético Mineiro is the most successful club in the cup history, having won the tournament two times. The cup was won by seven different clubs but it was never won consecutively.^[9][10]

Format

Qualification

Each national association was assigned a number of entries determined by CONMEBOL which changed slightly from one edition to another. The best teams from the previous season that did not qualify for the Copa Libertadores through their league qualified for the Copa CONMEBOL. The tournament itself was played in two-legged knockout stages. The champion of the Copa CONMEBOL disputed the Recopa Sudamericana, the Copa de Oro and the Copa Master de CONMEBOL, albeit irregularly.

Tournament

The tournament started in the first stage in which 16 clubs were paired in a series of two-legged knockout ties in the round of 16, the first of four stages that worked on a single elimination phase knockout system that culminated in the finals. During each stage of the tournament, ties were decided on points, followed by goal difference, away goals, then a penalty shootout after full-time of the second leg, if necessary.

List of champions

Finals

Ed.	Year	Coun.	Winner	Runner-up	Coun.	Scores	Venue	City	Ref.
1	1992	BRA	Atlético Mineiro	Olimpia	PAR	2–0	Mineirão	Belo Horizonte	[11]
						0–1	Defensores del Chaco	Asunción
						2–1
2	1993	BRA	Botafogo	Peñarol	URU	1–1	Estadio Centenario	Montevideo	[12]
						2–2	Maracanã	Rio de Janeiro
						3–3 (3–1 p)
3	1994	BRA	São Paulo	Peñarol	URU	6–1	Morumbi	São Paulo	[13]
						0–3	Estadio Centenario	Montevideo
						6–4
4	1995	ARG	Rosario Central	Atlético Mineiro	BRA	0–4	Mineirão	Belo Horizonte	[14]
						4–0	Gigante de Arroyito	Rosario
						4–4 (4–3 p)
5	1996	ARG	Lanús	Santa Fe	COL	2–0	La Fortaleza	Lanús	[15][16][17]
						0–1	El Campín	Bogotá
						2–1
6	1997	BRA	Atlético Mineiro	Lanús	ARG	4–1	La Fortaleza	Lanús	[11]
						1–1	Mineirão	Belo Horizonte
						4–1
7	1998	BRA	Santos	Rosario Central	ARG	1–0	Vila Belmiro	Santos	[18]
						0–0	Gigante de Arroyito	Rosario
						1–0
8	1999	ARG	Talleres (C)	CSA	BRA	2–4	Rei Pelé	Maceió	[19][20][21]
						3–0	Estadio Olímpico	Córdoba
						5–4

Performances by club

Performance in the Copa CONMEBOL by club

Club	Titles	Runners-up	Seasons won	Seasons runner-up
Atlético Mineiro	2	1	1992, 1997	1995
Rosario Central	1	1	1995	1998
Lanús	1	1	1996	1997
Botafogo	1	0	1993	—
São Paulo	1	0	1994	—
Santos	1	0	1998	—
Talleres	1	0	1999	—
Peñarol	0	2	—	1993, 1994
Olimpia	0	1	—	1992
Santa Fe	0	1	—	1996
CSA	0	1	—	1999

Top scorers

Year	Player (team)	Goals
1992	Aílton Delfino (Atlético Mineiro)	6
1993	Sinval (Botafogo)	8
1994	Juninho (São Paulo) Martín Rodríguez Alba (San Lorenzo)	5
1995	Horacio Carbonari (Rosario Central) Rubén da Silva (Rosario Central) Álex Escobar (América de Cali)	4
1996	Oscar Mena (Lanús)	5
1997	Valdir (Atlético Mineiro)	7
1998	Carlos María Morales (LDU Quito) Viola (Santos)	4
1999	Marcelo Araxá (São Raimundo-AM) Missinho (CSA)	4