Founded February 19, 1991 Current champions Honduras (4th time) Website Official website | Number of teams 7 Most successful team(s) Costa Rica (8 titles) | |
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Region Central America (UNCAF) | ||
The Copa Centroamericana ([ˈkopa sentɾoameɾiˈkana], Spanish for "Central American Cup") is the main association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Unión Centroamericana de Fútbol (UNCAF), the sport's Central American governing body. Held every two years since 1991, in the years before and after the FIFA World Cup tournaments, it was originally called the UNCAF Nations Cup (Spanish: Copa de Naciones de la UNCAF), changing to the current name in 2011.
Contents
The tournament consists of two stages. In the group round of the tournament finals, the seven teams compete in two round-robin groups, one of four teams and the other of three, for points, with the top two teams in each group proceeding. These four teams qualify for the semifinal stage of the final round, where the winners advance into the final while the losers dispute a third-place match. The fifth-place match is disputed between the third-ranked teams of the group stage. Depending on their performance in the Copa Centroamericana, teams then go on to participate in other competitions, such as the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Copa América.
The 14 Central American Championship tournaments have been won by four different national teams: Costa Rica are the most successful national team of the competition with eight victories. Honduras have won four titles. Guatemala and Panama have one title each. To date, Costa Rica and Honduras are the only sides in history to have won consecutive titles, with the former winning an unprecedented three titles in 2003, 2005 and 2007.
Honduras are the current champions, having won the 2017 Copa Centroamericana, in Panama.
History
Due to the success of the Costa Rica national football team at the 1990 FIFA World Cup and the approaching 1994 FIFA World Cup to be hosted in the United States, the CONCACAF Congress in Kingston, Jamaica decided to stage a continental championship itself; the CONCACAF Gold Cup was ratified on August 18, 1990. Costa Rica were given a bye into the competition due to its first place placing at the 1989 CONCACAF Championship, which also served as a qualification phase for the World Cup hosted by Italy. However, due to mainly economic reasons, the United States were chosen as the venue for the continental tournament.
During that same conference, the qualification format for the Central American associations were also decided on. The final qualification round of the Central American zone had two bids: the United States and Costa Rica. Costa Rica, now three-time CONCACAF champions and to celebrate their anniversary of the nation's World Cup performance by its team, was named by CONCACAF and UNCAF as the host country of the inaugural UNCAF Nations Cup tournament on February 19, 1991.
Results
- ^ Placings decided on a round-robin basis.