The Copa Paraguay is a knockout football competition in men's domestic Paraguayan
football, starting in 2018 and succeeding the defunct
Torneo República
The Torneo República (''Republic Tournament'') is a defunct official football tournament from Paraguay. The competition was held at the beginning of the year and its purpose was to integrate teams from the Asunción area with teams from other d ...
. The project for its creation was officially presented in December 2017 and approved by the
Paraguayan Football Association
The Paraguayan Football Association ( es, Asociación Paraguaya de Futbol ; APF) ( Guarani: ''Paraguái Mangapy Atyguasu''), is the omnibus governing body of football in Paraguay. It organizes the Paraguayan football league, including futsal a ...
's Executive Committee on 20 February 2018.
The competition starts in April and ends in November, with the winner of the cup qualifying for the following year's
Copa Libertadores
The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...
(
Copa Sudamericana
The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, named as ''Copa Sudamericana'' (; pt, Copa Sul-Americana ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club competition in South American fo ...
until the
2022
File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...
edition). If the cup winner has already qualified for South American competitions through the league, then the cup runner-up (or the third-placed team) will qualify. If the top three teams have all already qualified for South American competitions through the league, then the best-placed team in the
Paraguayan Primera División
The División Profesional de la Asociación Paraguaya de Fútbol (; "Professional Division of the Paraguayan Football Association"), also known as the Primera División (; "first division"), or due to sponsorship reasons Copa de Primera TIGO-Vi ...
that has not yet qualified for an international competition will qualify for the Copa Sudamericana. Starting from the
2021 edition, the winner also qualifies for the
Supercopa Paraguay
The Supercopa Paraguay (''Paraguay Supercup'') is an annual one-match football official competition in Paraguay organised by the Paraguayan Football Association (APF) which is played by the Primera División champions with the best record in the ...
.
Format
For its first edition in
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
, the competition was divided into two stages: a preliminary stage and the national stage.
In the preliminary stage, teams from the
Primera B
Primera may refer to
* Nissan Primera, a car
* Primera Air, a former airline
* Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues
* Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas
* Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, c ...
,
Primera C, and the
UFI Ufi may refer to:
* Ufi Ltd, an educational non-governmental organisation of the United Kingdom
* Ufi, Iran, a village in Iran
UFI may refer to:
* Unión del Fútbol del Interior, the Paraguayan football (soccer) governing body
* Unique Feature ...
competed for 20 berths to the national stage: 7 Primera B teams, 6 from the Primera C, and 7 from the UFI qualified for the next stage of the competition.
In the national stage, the 12
Primera División teams and the 16
División Intermedia teams entered the competition, for a total of 48 teams which were drawn into 24 ties, with the winners qualifying for the second round. The 12 second round winners as well as the four best losers advanced to the round of 16. From that point onwards, the Copa Paraguay continued as a single-elimination tournament.
However, starting from
the following edition, the competition was expanded from 48 to 64 teams, allowing for greater participation from teams from the lower tiers and scrapping the preliminary round. It continued being a single-elimination tournament, with all teams entering the competition in the first stage. In April 2022, APF confirmed that a total of 74 teams would join the 2022 edition.
Paraguay: ¿Cómo será el nuevo formato?
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Results
Performance by club
Performance by leagues
References
External links
Copa Paraguay on the APF's website
{{National football Cups (CONMEBOL region)
National association football cups
Football in Paraguay