Copa Mercosur

Copa Mercosur
	The trophy awarded to champions
Organizing body	CONMEBOL
Founded	1998
Abolished	2001; 23 years ago
Region	South America
Number of teams	20
Related competitions	Copa Merconorte
Most successful club(s)	Palmeiras; Flamengo; Vasco; San Lorenzo ; (1 title each)
Television broadcasters	PSN

The Copa Mercosur (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkopa meɾkoˈsuɾ], Portuguese: Copa Mercosul [ˈkɔpɐ meʁkoˈsuw], "Mercosur Cup") was a football competition played from 1998 to 2001 by the traditional top clubs from Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile. The competition was created by CONMEBOL to generate TV money to the participating teams, but it went beyond and ended up, together with the Copa Merconorte, as natural replacement to the CONMEBOL Cup. These two, Copa Merconorte and Copa Mercosur, were replaced in 2002 by the Copa Sudamericana.

Format

Twenty teams played in the tournament. The teams were divided in five groups of four teams each and the matches were played in two legs. The group winners and the best three runners-up qualified for the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals, the semifinals were played in two legs. In 1998 and 2000 the finals were played in three legs. In 1999 and 2001 the finals were played in two legs.

Final venues

Throughout the brief history of the competition a total of five venues were used to host the final series:

Belo Horizonte	São Paulo	Rio de Janeiro	Rio de Janeiro	Buenos Aires
Mineirão	Estádio Palestra Itália	Maracanã Stadium	Estádio São Januário	Estadio Pedro Bidegain
Capacity: 61,800	Capacity: 27,600	Capacity: 78,800	Capacity: 24,500	Capacity: 48,000

Finals

Year	Country	Champion	Runner-up	Country	1st leg	1st leg Venue	2nd leg	2nd leg Venue	Playoff	Playoff Venue
1998	BRA	Palmeiras	Cruzeiro	BRA	1–2	Mineirão	3–1	Palestra Itália	1–0	Palestra Itália
1999	BRA	Flamengo	Palmeiras	BRA	4–3	Maracanã	3–3	Palestra Itália	–	–
2000	BRA	Vasco da Gama	Palmeiras	BRA	2–0	São Januário	0–1	Palestra Itália	4–3	Palestra Itália
2001	ARG	San Lorenzo	Flamengo	BRA	0–0	Maracanã	1–1 (4–3 p)	Pedro Bidegain	–	–

Keys

Match decided by a penalty shootout after extra time
Match playoff after the series ended tied on aggregate

Performances

By club

Team	Won	Runner-up	Years won	Years runner-up
Palmeiras	1	2	1998	1999, 2000
Flamengo	1	1	1999	2001
San Lorenzo	1	0	2001	—
Vasco da Gama	1	0	2000	—
Cruzeiro	0	1	—	1998

By country

Country	Won	Runners-Up	Winning Clubs	Runners-Up
Brazil	3	4	Flamengo (1); Palmeiras (1); Vasco da Gama (1)	Palmeiras (2); Flamengo (1); Cruzeiro (1)
Argentina	1	0	San Lorenzo (1)	—

Top scorers

Year	Player (team)	Goals
1998	Alex (Palmeiras) Fábio Júnior (Cruzeiro)	6
1999	Romário (Flamengo)	8
2000	Romário (Vasco da Gama)	11
2001	Bernardo Romeo (San Lorenzo)	10

References

Copa Mercosur at RSSSF