Girish Mahajan (Editor)

2017 Copa Sudamericana

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Dates
  
28 Feb 2017 – 13 Dec 2017

Location
  
South America


Teams
  
44+10 (from 10 associations)

Similar
  
2017 Copa Libertadores, 2016 Copa Sudamericana, 2015 Copa Sudamericana, 2016 Copa Libertadores, 2014 Copa Sudamericana

The 2017 Copa CONMEBOL Sudamericana (Portuguese: 2017 Copa CONMEBOL Sul-Americana) will be the 16th edition of the Copa Sudamericana, South America's secondary club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL.

Contents

The winners of the 2017 Copa Sudamericana will qualify for the 2018 Copa Libertadores, and also earn the right to play against the winners of the 2017 Copa Libertadores in the 2018 Recopa Sudamericana, and the winners of the 2017 J.League Cup in the 2018 Suruga Bank Championship.

Chapecoense are the defending champions, but since they qualified for the 2017 Copa Libertadores group stage as the Copa Sudamericana title holders, they will not participate in the 2017 Copa Sudamericana unless they finish third in their Copa Libertadores group.

Format changes

Starting from this season, the following format changes will be implemented:

  • The tournament will be expanded from 47 to 54 teams.
  • A total of 44 teams will directly enter the Copa Sudamericana, while a total of 10 teams eliminated from the Copa Libertadores (two best teams eliminated in the third qualifying stage and eight third-placed teams in the group stage) will be transferred to the Copa Sudamericana.
  • The schedule of the tournament will be extended to year-round so it will start in March and conclude in early December.
  • As the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana will be held concurrently, no team will be able to qualify for both tournaments in the same year (except those which are transferred from the Copa Libertadores to the Copa Sudamericana).
  • The Copa Sudamericana champion will no longer directly qualify for the next edition as they will now directly qualify for the group stage of the Copa Libertadores (although they may still be able to defend their title if they finish third in the group stage). Moreover, Brazil will be allocated only six berths (decreased from eight).
  • All teams directly entering the Copa Sudamericana will enter the first stage (previously teams from Argentina and Brazil entered the second stage).

    • Teams

    The following 44 teams from the 10 CONMEBOL associations qualified for the tournament, entering the first stage:

  • Argentina and Brazil: 6 berths each
  • All other associations: 4 berths each

    • A further 10 teams eliminated from the 2017 Copa Libertadores will be transferred to the Copa Sudamericana, entering the second stage.

    Draw

    The draw of the first stage was held on 31 January 2017, 21:00 PYST (UTC−3), at the CONMEBOL Convention Centre in Luque, Paraguay.

    For the first stage, the 44 teams were divided into two zones:

  • South Zone: Teams from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
  • North Zone: Teams from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

    • Teams from the South Zone were allocated to Pot A and teams from the North Zone were allocated to Pot B. The 44 teams were drawn into 22 ties (G1–G22) between a team from Pot A and a team from Pot B, with teams from Pot B hosting the second leg in odd-numbered ties, and teams from Pot A hosting the second leg in even-numbered ties. This distribution ensured that teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same tie.

    There will be a separate draw for the second stage, which will be held on 2 June 2017. The 32 teams will be drawn into 16 ties.

    Schedule

    The schedule of the competition is as follows.

    First stage

    The 44 direct qualifiers play in the first stage.

    Second stage

    The 22 winners of the first stage advance to the second stage to join the 10 teams which are transferred from the 2017 Copa Libertadores (two best teams eliminated in the third qualifying stage and eight third-placed teams in the group stage).

    References

    2017 Copa Sudamericana Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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