The Copa Merconorte () was an international football competition organized by CONMEBOL from 1998 to 2001 by clubs from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela and starting in 2000 clubs from the CONCACAF confederation were invited including Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States. The competition ran alongside the Copa Mercosur, which was based on the actual Mercosur economic bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, but Copa Mercosur also included clubs from Chile.
Teams did not directly qualify for this competition. Instead, the aim was to generate profits through the television contracts by inviting the most marketable clubs from each country. Therefore, participation was based on invitation of individual clubs.
All four editions were won by Colombian clubs. Atlético Nacional won it on two occasions (1998 and 2000). All the finalists in the first three editions were Colombian. In the fourth edition, Emelec became the first and only non-Colombian club to reach the finals of the Copa Merconorte.
Both the Copa Merconorte and the Copa Mercosur were discontinued after the 2001 edition. A football competition to be called the Copa Pan-Americana would have replaced these two competitions for the 2002 season featuring clubs from both CONMEBOL and CONCACAF. That competition was first postponed, with plans to be played in 2003, then eventually cancelled. The Copa Pan-Americana would ultimately not come to fruition and that left the Copa Sudamericana as the successor of the Copa Merconorte and the Copa Mercosur. Instead, a CONMEBOL competition called the Copa Sudamericana was created and had its first edition in 2002, and that competition is still played to this day.
Format
Qualification Teams did not directly qualify for this competition through their national leagues. Participation was based solely on invitation.
Tournament The 1998 and 1999 editions were played with twelve teams of the five corresponding CONMEBOL nations. The twelve teams were divided into three groups and each team meets the others in its group home and away in a round-robin format. The group winners and the best runner-up advanced to a semifinal stage. The semifinals were played over two legs and the winners advanced to the finals which were also played over two legs. In 1999, the Bolivian teams played a qualifying playoff before the first phase of Copa Merconorte.
The 2000 and 2001 editions were expanded to sixteen teams and divided into four groups. With the expansion of another group, only the group winners advanced to the semifinals.
Distribution The invitations and distribution of berths over the four seasons were as follows. Association 1998 1999 2000 2001 BoliviaThe StrongestThe StrongestOriente PetroleroBlooming Colombia América de Cali Atlético Nacional Deportivo Cali MillonariosAmérica de Cali Atlético Nacional Millonarios Santa FeAmérica de Cali Atlético Nacional MillonariosAmérica de Cali Atlético Nacional Millonarios EcuadorBarcelona El Nacional EmelecBarcelona El Nacional EmelecBarcelona El Nacional EmelecAucas Barcelona Emelec PeruAlianza Lima Sporting Cristal UniversitarioAlianza Lima Sporting Cristal UniversitarioAlianza Lima Sporting Cristal UniversitarioAlianza Lima Sporting Cristal Universitario VenezuelaCaracasCaracasEstudiantes de MéridaDeportivo Italchacao Costa RicaNo invitationsNo invitationsAlajuelenseNo invitations MexicoNo invitationsNo invitationsGuadalajara Necaxa Pachuca TolucaGuadalajara Necaxa Santos Laguna United StatesNo invitationsNo invitationsNo invitationsKansas City Wizards NY/NJ MetroStars
Records and statistics List of finals
Year Winners1st.leg2nd.leg Runners-up Venue (1st leg) City (1st leg) Venue (2nd leg) City (2nd leg) 1998 Atlético Nacional 3–1 1–0 Deportivo Cali Atanasio Girardot MedellínPascual Guerrero Cali 1999 América de Cali 1–2 1–0 Santa Fe Pascual Guerrero CaliNemesio Camacho Bogotá 2000 Atlético Nacional 0–0 2–1 Millonarios Nemesio Camacho Bogotá Atanasio Girardot Medellín 2001 Millonarios 1–1 1–1 Emelec Nemesio Camacho BogotáGeorge Capwell Guayaquil
Performances by club +Performance in the Copa Merconorte by clubClubTitlesRunners-upSeasons wonSeasons runner-up Atlético Nacional201998, 2000 Millonarios1120012000 América de Cali101999 Deportivo Cali011998 Emelec012001 Santa Fe011999
Performances by nation +NationWinnerRunner-upTotal 437 011
Participants (1998–2001)
Atlético Nacional América de Cali Deportivo Cali Independiente Santa Fe Millonarios Alianza Lima Sporting Cristal Club Universitario de Deportes Barcelona S.C. El Nacional Club Sport Emelec The Strongest Club Blooming Oriente Petrolero Caracas F.C. Deportivo Italchacao Estudiantes de Mérida Alajuelense Necaxa C.D. Guadalajara C.F. Pachuca Toluca FC Kansas City Wizards MetroStars
Berths per season (1998–2001)
Colombia: 4 Mexico: 4 Ecuador: 3 Peru: 3 United States: 2 Bolivia: 1 Venezuela: 1 Costa Rica: 1
See also Copa Mercosur Supercopa Libertadores Copa Sudamericana Copa CONMEBOL
References
External links Copa Merconorte at RSSSF Copa Sudamericana at RSSSF Copa Pan-Americana at RSSSF South America - Other Copas at RSSSF