The ball is rolling once more: today the new 64th edition of the Libertadores Cup of male America. The most important soccer tournament on the continent will have nine rookie teams, the use of VAR will be implemented in all stages and will distribute prizes for a total of 207,800,000 dollars.
This year it will have the participation of six Argentine teams that will seek to break with the Brazilian hegemony. The last four achievements were shared by Palmeiras and Flamengo (two each) although the most winners are Independiente (7 titles), Boca (6) and Peñarol (5). Of course, to find the last title of any of the three, you have to go back to 2007, when Juan Román Riquelme led Boca to its last conquest
Since 2019, the Libertadores final has been played in a single match at a previously defined venue, emulating the Champions League. In 2022 Flamengo and Athletico Paranaense played the final match at the Monumental de Guayaquil in Ecuador. For 2023, the venue has not yet been chosen, although the date of the final match has been established, which will be November 11.
The Conmebol Libertadores 2023 starts with the three first legs of the first stage of the playoffs, which includes the debut of the Bolivian Nacional de Potosí and the Uruguayan Boston River. They will be played in three keys, which will have their first legs between Tuesday 7 and Thursday 9 February and the rematches the following week.
The winners of the three brackets of the first part of the tournament will meet the pre-classified teams for the second instance. In this round of the competition, the only Argentine team that will have to play extra games to win the Libertadores appears.
In the third stage of the competition, also direct elimination, eight teams will play for the last four available spots in the pool instance. Those who remain on the road will enter the group round of the Copa Sudamericana.
After the four winners of the third stage have been defined, the draw will be held among the 32 teams that will play the group stage. The draw for this instance, which will begin to be held in the week of April 4, will be held on March 22, taking into account that two teams from the same country may not share the group except for one of them coming from the preliminary stage.
The six clubs from our country that will be in the game in the Conmebol Libertadores 2023 are: Boca, Racing, Patronato (debutante), River, Argentinos and Huracán.
Boca was classified as Argentina 1, for being champion of the 2022 Professional League Tournament. Racing Club He got his place by being the best located in the 2022 annual table. Patronato de Paraná entered the tournament for the first time following consecrating himself as champion of the Argentine Cup. River entered as the 2nd best placed in the annual table. Argentinos did it for being the 3rd best placed in the annual table and Huracán was the last to enter for being the 4th best placed in the 2022 annual table.
Huracán will begin its participation in the second stage of the playoffs when it faces the winner of the crossing between Boston River and Zamora. The first game will be played on February 22 and the return will be on March 1. In case of beating the winner between Boston River and Zamora, the Globito will continue in the next stage, where eight teams will play for the last four places available in the group stage.
In the 64th edition of the Copa Libertadores they will participate for the first time Deportivo Maldonado (Uruguay), Boston River (Uruguay), Metropolitanos (Venezuela), Patronato, Ñublense (Chile), Curicó Unido (Chile), Nacional Potosí (Bolivia), Aucas (Ecuador) and Deportivo Pereira (Colombia).
In Argentina, the matches of the Conmebol Libertadores can be seen in three different ways:
This year the champion of the Copa Libertadores will take regarding 30 million dollars in prizes. But that is only part of the money that will be distributed, because Conmebol will distribute a record amount in the history of this tournament. Total, will deliver 207,800,000 dollars, 21% more than in last year’s edition. According to information released by Conmebol, the details of the prizes to be awarded in each of the phases of the competition will be:
“We are promoting our talents, our strength and our passion from the continent to shine in the world as an increasingly global show. For this reason, from this new cycle, we are going to increase the amounts for participating in Copa Libertadores, Copa Sudamericana and Recopa”said Alejandro Dominguez, head of Conmebol. “The Executive Council authorized us to be able to reach up to an amount of 300 million dollars. When we started in 2016, the total distributed was 70 million dollars”added the Paraguayan leader.
THE NATION