Copa do Nordeste (English: ''Cup of the North-East''), also known as Campeonato do Nordeste (''English: Championship of the North-East'') or Copa Nordeste (English: ''Northeastern Cup'') is a Brazilian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

competition among Northeastern region teams. It is sometimes informally referred to as Lampions League – in reference to the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

and

bandit Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, kidnapping, and murder, e ...

folk hero

Lampião "Captain" Virgulino Ferreira da Silva (; 7 June 1897 – 28 July 1938), better known as Lampião (older spelling: ''Lampeão'', , meaning "lantern" or "oil lamp"), was probably the most successful traditional Brazilian bandit leader of the 20th c ...

History

The competition was first played in 1994. From 1997 to 1999, the Campeonato do Nordeste champions granted qualification to

Copa Conmebol The Copa CONMEBOL () was an annual football cup competition organized by CONMEBOL between 1992 and 1999 for South American football clubs. During its time of existence, it was a very prestigious South American club football contest, similar to the ...

. From 2000 to 2002, the Campeonato do Nordeste champions granted qualification to the

Copa dos Campeões Copa dos Campeões (Portuguese for Brazilian Champions Cup) was a Brazilian football competition, organized by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), contested by the best teams from each one of the regional cups. The Copa dos Campeões wi ...

. The competition returned in 2010, after being defunct since 2003. Copa do Nordeste returned again in 2013. From 2014 to 2016, the winner got a spot in the

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...

. The Copa do Nordeste champion now qualifies to the

Copa do Brasil The Copa do Brasil () is a knockout football competition played by 92 teams, representing all 26 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and it is the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça de Portugal, ...

Competition format

Since 2018 a qualifying tournament called Pré-Copa do

Nordeste The Northeast Region of Brazil ( ) is one of the five official and political regions of Brazil, regions of the country according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Of Brazil's twenty-six states, it comprises nine: Maranhão, ...

has been played. In this tournament, eight teams compete in a single-elimination tournament where the four winners advance to the Copa do Nordeste. The Copa do Nordeste has in its first stage two groups. 12 teams gain direct entries into the group stage while the other four berths are decided by the Pré-Copa do Nordeste. In the group stage, each group is played on a single round-robin basis against the eight clubs from the other group. The top four teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals. The quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals are played a single-elimination tournament. Only the finals are played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, with the best tournament team hosting the second leg, while quarter-finals and semi-finals are played on a single-leg basis, with the higher-seeded team hosting the leg.

History

Competition format

List of champions

Performances

By club

By state

Top scorers

Winning managers

References

External links