The 2023 Copa CONMEBOL Sudamericana was the 22nd edition of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana (also referred to as the Copa Sudamericana), South America's secondary club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL.
The final was played in Maldonado, Uruguay on 28 October 2023. Originally scheduled to be held in Montevideo,[1] on 15 April 2023 it was announced that the final would be played at Estadio Centenario,[2] however the match was confirmed to have been moved to Estadio Domingo Burgueño in Maldonado on 15 September 2023.[3]
Independiente del Valle were the titleholders, but did not defend their title since they qualified for the 2023 Copa Libertadores group stage as Copa Sudamericana champions and later advanced to the knockout stage.
Format changes
On 19 December 2022, CONMEBOL announced format changes to the Copa Sudamericana starting from this edition while maintaining the same number of matches to be played. The following changes were implemented:[5]
The first stage of the tournament, where teams from all associations (except Argentina and Brazil) play against a team from their same association, was played over a single match instead of a home-and-away two-legged basis.
The eight group runner-ups were not eliminated, but instead played a play-off round prior to the round of 16 against the eight third-placed teams of the Copa Libertadores group stage, which previously advanced directly to the round of 16. The winners of this round advanced to the round of 16 along with the Copa Sudamericana group winners.
Teams
The following 44 teams from the 10 CONMEBOL associations qualified for the tournament:[6]
2022 Primera División Fase Final Sudamericana B runners-up[16]
Notes
Bolivia (BOL): Since the 2022 Copa Bolivia was cancelled and the 2022 Clausura tournament was abandoned due to civil unrest, the four Copa Sudamericana berths allocated to Bolivia were awarded through aggregate table placement at the time of abandonment.[17]
Peru (PER): Due to the cancellation of the 2022 Copa Bicentenario, the Peru 4 berth which was originally allocated to the winners of said competition passed over to the 2022 Liga 1 aggregate table 4th best team not qualified for the 2023 Copa Libertadores.[18]
A further 12 teams eliminated from the 2023 Copa Libertadores were transferred to the Copa Sudamericana, entering the group stage and the knockout round play-offs.
Location of teams of the 2023 Copa Sudamericana. Brown: Group A; Red: Group B; Orange: Group C; Yellow: Group D; Green: Group E; Blue: Group F; Purple: Group G; Pink: Group H; White: First stage; Turquoise: Knockout round play-offs entrants. (L) Teams transferred from the 2023 Copa Libertadores.
The draw for the first stage was held on 21 December 2022, 12:00 PYST (UTC−3), at the CONMEBOL Convention Centre in Luque, Paraguay.[24] For the first stage, the 32 teams involved were divided into eight pots according to their national association.
The 32 teams were drawn into 16 ties, with the four teams from each national association being drawn against a rival from the same association in two ties per association.
The draw for the group stage was held on 27 March 2023, 20:00 PYT (UTC−4), at the CONMEBOL Convention Centre in Luque, Paraguay.[25][26]
Teams were seeded by their CONMEBOL Clubs ranking as of 9 December 2022 (shown in parentheses),[27] taking into account the following three factors:[28]
Performance in the last 10 years, taking into account Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana results in the period 2013–2022.
Historical coefficient, taking into account Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana results in the period 1960–2012 and 2002–2012 respectively.
Local tournament champion, with bonus points awarded to domestic league champions of the last 10 years.
For the group stage, the 32 teams were drawn into eight groups (Groups A–H) of four containing a team from each of the four pots. The four losers of the Copa Libertadores third stage were seeded into Pot 4. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 5 July 2023, 12:00 PYT (UTC−4) at the CONMEBOL Convention Center in Luque, Paraguay.[23][29] For the round of 16, the 16 teams were drawn into eight ties (A–H) between a Copa Sudamericana group winner (Pot 1) and a knockout round play-offs winner (Pot 2), with the group winners hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association or the same group could be drawn into the same tie (Regulations Article 2.2.3.2).[6]
In the first stage, each tie was played as a single-leg match.[5] If tied after 90 minutes, extra time would not be played, and a penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner (Regulations Article 2.4.2).
The 16 winners of the first stage advanced to the group stage to join the 12 teams directly qualified for that stage (six from Argentina and six from Brazil), and four teams transferred from the Copa Libertadores (the four teams eliminated in the third stage of qualifying).
In the group stage, each group is played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The teams are ranked according to the following criteria: 1. Points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss); 2. Goal difference; 3. Goals scored; 4. Away goals scored; 5. CONMEBOL ranking (Regulations Article 2.4.2).[6]
In the knockout round play-offs, round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals, each tie is played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, with the higher-seeded team hosting the second leg (Regulations Article 2.2.3). If tied on aggregate, extra time will not be played, and a penalty shoot-out will be used to determine the winners (Regulations Article 2.4.4).
The final is played as a single match at a venue pre-selected by CONMEBOL, with the higher-seeded team designated as the "home" team for administrative purposes (Regulations Article 2.2.6). If tied after regulation, 30 minutes of extra time will be played. If still tied after extra time, a penalty shoot-out will be used to determine the winners (Regulations Article 2.4.5).
Seeding
For the final stages, the teams are seeded according to their results in the group stage, with the Copa Sudamericana group winners seeded 1–8, the Copa Sudamericana group runners-up seeded 9–16, and the Copa Libertadores group third-placed teams seeded 17–24. For the round of 16 draw, the seeds 1–8 made up Pot 1, and the eight knockout round play-offs winners (seeds 9–24) made up Pot 2, keeping their seed. Teams from the same association may play each other from the knockout round play-offs onwards.