South America's biggest club prize is named after the continent's liberators
The Copa Libertadores honours the men who freed Spanish America and Brazil from colonial rule, among them Bernardo O'Higgins, Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín. Since 1960 it has crowned the best club team in South America, and by 2023 its champion collected 18 million dollars.
The idea grew from matches between the champions of Argentina and Uruguay in the 1930s. In 1948 the Chilean club Colo-Colo staged a South American Championship of Champions in Santiago, won by Brazil's Vasco da Gama. One of the founders of the European Cup later said that tournament inspired Europe's own champions competition in 1955. Peñarol's directors drafted the format in 1958, and João Havelange announced it to a UEFA meeting that October, so the winners of both continents could meet to settle the best club in the world. It took the liberators' name in 1965.
Its rules long went their own way. Until 1987 two-legged ties were settled on points rather than goals, with a third game at a neutral ground if teams finished level. Holders skipped straight to the semi-finals, which made keeping the cup far easier. Away goals arrived only in 2005, and extra time in finals in 2008.
Independiente of Argentina have won it a record seven times, and they and Estudiantes each kept a trophy outright for winning three in a row. Argentine and Brazilian clubs have 25 titles apiece, but Brazil spreads its success more widely, with 12 different winning clubs, and from 2019 its sides won seven straight editions. The present trophy, the third, was made in Lima by the Italian-born goldsmith Alberto de Gasperi, with a bronze footballer on top and a pedestal carrying every winner's badge.
Today 47 clubs compete over six to eight months, beginning in January and finishing in November. The winner qualifies for FIFA's club competitions and the Recopa Sudamericana. The pursuit has its own phrase, the liberator dream, and when a team is knocked out the press says it has woken up.
Source: Copa Libertadores
