Copa Argentina

Copa Argentina

Founded	1969 (Re-established in 2011)
Region	Argentina
Number of teams	186
Current champions	Boca Juniors
Most successful club(s)	Boca Juniors (2 titles)
Television broadcasters	TV Pública
2012–13 Copa Argentina

The Copa Argentina (English: Argentine Cup) is an official tournament organized by Argentine Football Association (AFA), with the aim of qualifying clubs for the Copa Sudamericana. The first editions of the championship were contested by teams in Primera División that did not earn eligibility to participate in the Copa Libertadores of the following year, and by the best clubs in the regional leagues.

The tournament was re-launched in 2011, with teams of all divisions that form the Argentine football league system taking part of the championship.^{[1] [2]}

Boca Juniors is the most winning team with 2 titles (1969 and 2011-12) due to the 1970 edition was abbandoned with no champion declared.

History

The trophy given to champions for the 1969 and 1970 editions.

A new international competition, Copa Ganadores de Copa, would be held by CONMEBOL in 1970 as the South American equivalence of UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. AFA thus started a cup competition, the Copa Argentina, in 1969 and the winner would qualify for the Copa Ganadores de Copa 1970.

The competition was contested by 32 teams using a two-legged elimination format. Two points were awarded for winning a leg, one for a draw and null for a loss. The teams having more points would qualify to the next round. If both teams had same numbers of point, it would be determined by the total number of goals, total number of goals conceded, and penalty shootout accordingly.

First edition: 1969

All teams in the Primera División Argentina participated the competition with some top teams from the regional leagues, except teams that had already qualified to the Copa Libertadores, namely, Vélez Sársfield and River Plate, the winners and runners-up of Nacional 1968 respectively, and Estudiantes de La Plata, the champions of Copa Libertadores 1968.^[3]

Boca Juniors and Atlanta entered the final. Boca won the tournament by defeating Atlanta 2-0 in two legs.

However, as Boca later won the Nacional 1969 and qualified to the Copa Libertadores 1970, Atlanta qualified to the Copa Ganadores de Copa 1970 as the runners-up.^[3]

Second edition: 1970

A new trophy was designed for the 2011 relaunch.

Apart from teams that had got the Copa Libertadores eligibility, namely Boca Juniors and River Plate, the champions and runners-up of Nacional 1969, and Estudiantes de La Plata, who won the Copa Libertadores 1969, all clubs in the Primera División Argentina participated this competition. The champions of Primera B, Ferro, also took part in the tournament, alongside with 13 top clubs from regional leagues.^[4]

Copa Argentina 1970 never finished. 32 teams played the competition and San Lorenzo and Vélez Sársfield entered the final. The tournament had been lasting for a long period in that year. Starting in March 1970, the first leg of the final was played in March 1971. At that time, the Copa Ganadores de Copa, which the winner of Copa Argentina would be qualifying for, had already started. Moreover, as Huracán Buceo and Deportes Concepción, the two other team in the same group with the Argentine representiative in the Copa Ganadores de Copa, had not confirmed their particicpation, so the organizor announced the Copa Ganadores de Copa would become a friendly tournament.^[5] Therefore, after the first leg of the Copa Argentina final was held, which the teams drew 2-2, the second leg was never played. No Argentine teams participated in the Copa Ganadores de Copa 1971.

Relaunch

The reschedule of the Copa Argentina -officialized in 2011-^[6] includes 186 teams of 7 divisions of the Argentine football league system in a knock-out system competition. All the matches are disputed in neutral locations. The teams of the first division are included in rounds of 32. The champion of the tournament will qualify for the next edition of Copa Sudamericana.

The 2012 final between Boca and Racing was scheduled many times due to fixture congestion. The match was finally played on August 8, 2012, at the Estadio del Bicentenario in San Juan.^[7] Boca Juniors won its second trophy after defeating Racing Club by 2-1.^[8]

The 2012–13 Copa Argentina is scheduled to begin October 23, 2012 in a new two-phase knock-out competition.^[9]

Champions

The following is the list with the finals played:

Notes:

• ¹ San Lorenzo and Vélez Sarsfield qualified to play the finals. The first match ended 2–2, and the second leg was never played so there was not a champion.

References

External links

• Official website (Spanish)