# Copa Merconorte

The Copa Merconorte (Spanish pronunciation:) was an international football competition organized by CONMEBOL from 1998 to 2001 by clubs from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela and starting in 2000 clubs from the CONCACAF confederation were invited including Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States. The competition ran alongside the Copa Mercosur—based on the actual Mercosur economic pact between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Teams did not directly qualify for this competition. Instead, the aim was to generate profits through the television contracts by inviting the most marketable clubs from each country. Therefore, participation was based on invitation of individual clubs.
The competition—along with the Copa Mercosur—was discontinued following the conclusion of 2001. A football competition to be called the Copa Pan-Americana would replace these two competitions for the 2002 season featuring clubs from both CONMEBOL and CONCACAF. The competition was postponed, with plans to be played in 2003. Instead, a CONMEBOL competition was founded dubbed as the Copa Sudamericana in 2002. The Copa Pan-Americana was never organized in the immediate future and leaving the Sudamericana as the successor of the Copa Merconorte and Copa Mercosur.
All four editions were won by a Colombian club. Atlético Nacional won it on two occasions (1998 and 2000). All the finalists in the first three editions were Colombian. In the fourth edition, Emelec became the first and only non-Colombian club to reach the finals of the Copa Merconorte.

## Format
### Qualification

Teams did not directly qualify for this competition through their national leagues. Participation was based solely on invitation.

### Tournament

The 1998 and 1999 editions were played with twelve teams of the five corresponding CONMEBOL nations. The twelve teams were divided into three groups and each team meets the others in its group home and away in a round-robin format. The group winners and the best runner-up advanced to a semifinal stage. The semifinals were played over two legs and the winners advanced to the finals which were also played over two legs. In 1999, the Bolivian teams played a qualifying playoff before the first phase of Copa Merconorte.
The 2000 and 2001 editions were expanded to sixteen teams and divided into four groups. With the expansion of another group, only the group winners advanced to the semifinals.

### Distribution

The invitations and distribution of berths over the four seasons were as follows.
| Association | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 |
| Bolivia | The Strongest | The Strongest | Oriente Petrolero | Blooming |
| Colombia | América de Cali Atlético Nacional Deportivo Cali Millonarios | América de Cali Atlético Nacional Millonarios Santa Fe | América de Cali Atlético Nacional Millonarios | América de Cali Atlético Nacional Millonarios |
| Ecuador | Barcelona El Nacional Emelec | Barcelona El Nacional Emelec | Barcelona El Nacional Emelec | Aucas Barcelona Emelec |
| Peru | Alianza Lima Sporting Cristal Universitario | Alianza Lima Sporting Cristal Universitario | Alianza Lima Sporting Cristal Universitario | Alianza Lima Sporting Cristal Universitario |
| Venezuela | Caracas | Caracas | Estudiantes de Mérida | Deportivo Italchacao |
| Costa Rica | No invitations | No invitations | Alajuelense | No invitations |
| Mexico | No invitations | No invitations | Guadalajara Necaxa Pachuca Toluca | Guadalajara Necaxa Santos Laguna |
| United States | No invitations | No invitations | No invitations | Kansas City Wizards NY/NJ MetroStars |

## Records and statistics
### List of finals
#### Keys

* aet: after extra time
* p: defined on penalty shoot-out
* Match decided by a penalty shootout after extra time
* Match playoff after the series ended tied on aggregate
* Defined on penalty shoot-out in the second leg
| Year | Winners | 1st. leg | 2nd. leg | Playoff/ Agg. | Runners-up | Venue (1st leg) | City (1st leg) | Venue (2nd leg) | City (2nd leg) |
| 1998 | Atlético Nacional | 3–1 | 1–0 | – | Deportivo Cali | Atanasio Girardot | Medellín | Pascual Guerrero | Cali |
| 1999 | América de Cali | 1–2 | 1–0 | 5–3 (p) | Santa Fe | Pascual Guerrero | Cali | Nemesio Camacho | Bogotá |
| 2000 | Atlético Nacional | 0–0 | 2–1 | – | Millonarios | Nemesio Camacho | Bogotá | Atanasio Girardot | Medellín |
| 2001 | Millonarios | 1–1 | 1–1 | 3–1 (p) | Emelec | Nemesio Camacho | Bogotá | George Capwell | Guayaquil |

### Performances by club

| Club | Titles | Runners-up | Seasons won | Seasons runner-up |
| Atlético Nacional | 2 | 0 | 1998, 2000 | — |
| Millonarios | 1 | 1 | 2001 | 2000 |
| América de Cali | 1 | 0 | 1999 | — |
| Deportivo Cali | 0 | 1 | — | 1998 |
| Emelec | 0 | 1 | — | 2001 |
| Santa Fe | 0 | 1 | — | 1999 |

### Performances by nation

| Nation | Winner | Runner-up | Total |
| Colombia | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| Ecuador | 0 | 1 | 1 |