2026 Copa Sudamericana

The 2026 Copa CONMEBOL Sudamericana is the 25th edition of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana (also referred to as the Copa Sudamericana), South America's secondary club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. The competition began on 3 March and is scheduled to end on 21 November 2026, with the final to be played at Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Meléndez in Barranquilla, Colombia.

The winners of the 2026 Copa Sudamericana will earn the right to play against the winners of the 2026 Copa Libertadores in the 2027 Recopa Sudamericana. They will also automatically qualify for the 2027 Copa Libertadores group stage.

Argentine club Lanús are the titleholders, and they will defend their title after placing third in their Copa Libertadores group.

The following 44 teams from the 10 CONMEBOL associations qualified for the tournament:

• Argentina and Brazil: 6 berths each
• All other associations: 4 berths each

The entry stage is determined as follows:

• Group stage: 12 teams (teams from Argentina and Brazil)
• First stage: 32 teams (teams from all other associations)

A further 12 teams eliminated from the 2026 Copa Libertadores will be transferred to the Copa Sudamericana, entering the group stage and the knockout round play-offs.

The schedule of the competition is as follows:

The draw for the first stage was held on 18 December 2025, 12:00 PYT (UTC−3), at the CONMEBOL Convention Centre in Luque, Paraguay.

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 first team drawn in each tie hosted the match.

The draw for the group stage was held on 19 March 2026, 20:00 PYT (UTC−3), at the CONMEBOL Convention Centre in Luque, Paraguay.

Teams were seeded by their CONMEBOL Clubs ranking as of 15 December 2025 (shown in parentheses), taking into account the following three factors:

1. Performance in the last 10 years, taking into account Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana results in the period 2016–2025.
2. Historical coefficient, taking into account Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana results in the period 1960–2015 and 2002–2015 respectively.
3. 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.

Notes

The draw for the round of 16 was held on 29 May 2026, 12:00 PYT (UTC−3) at the CONMEBOL headquarters in Luque, Paraguay. 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 Articles 2.2.3.2).

In the first stage, each tie was played on a single-leg basis, with the winner being decided in a penalty shoot-out in case of a draw after 90 minutes.

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 was played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The winners of each group advanced to the round of 16 of the final stages, whilst the runners-up of each group advanced to the knockout round play-offs of the final stages.

Starting from the knockout round play-offs, the teams play a single-elimination tournament with the following rules:

• 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).

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 number. Teams from the same association may play each other from the knockout round play-offs onwards.

The bracket was decided based on the round of 16 draw, which was held on 29 May 2026.

The final will be played on 21 November 2026 at Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Meléndez in Barranquilla, Colombia.

As of 28 May 2026

• 2026 Copa Libertadores

• CONMEBOL Sudamericana

• CONMEBOL.com