The 1963 Copa de Campeones de América was the fourth season of
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
's premier club
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
tournament. Nine teams entered with
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
and
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
not sending a representative.
This competition was notable for the participation of many world class stars such as
José Sanfilippo
José Francisco "El Nene" Sanfilippo (born 4 May 1935) is a former Argentine footballer who played as a striker.
Club career
Sanfilippo was born in Buenos Aires. During his club career he played for San Lorenzo, Boca Juniors and Banfield in ...
,
Pelé
Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; born 23 October 1940), known as Pelé (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and labelled "the greatest" by FIFA, ...
,
Garrincha
Manuel Francisco dos Santos (28 October 1933 – 20 January 1983), nicknamed Mané Garrincha, best known as simply Garrincha (, "little bird"), was a Brazilian professional footballer who played as a right winger. He is widely regarded as one of ...
,
Antonio Rattín
Antonio Ubaldo Rattín (born May 16, 1937) is a former Argentine football player, best known as a Boca Juniors midfielder, and because of an incident in a match at the 1966 FIFA World Cup.
Rattín remains as one of the greatest idols of Boca Jun ...
,
Alberto Spencer
Alberto Pedro Spencer Herrera (6 December 1937 – 3 November 2006) was an Ecuadorian footballer who played as a forward, and is widely regarded as one of the best Ecuadorian footballers of all time He is probably best known for his still-standin ...
,
Jairzinho
Jair Ventura Filho (born 25 December 1944), better known as Jairzinho (), is a Brazilian former footballer. A quick, skillful, and powerful right winger known for his finishing ability and eye for goal, he was a key member and top scorer of th ...
, among others. The ''Alvinegro da Vila'', usually regarded as the greatest football club team ever, defeated their semifinal and final opponents in stylish fashion which included a 0–4 victory over
Botafogo
Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...
in the fable
Estádio do Maracanã, and a 1–2 win in
La Bombonera
The Alberto José Armando Stadium is a football stadium located in La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Widely known as La Bombonera (; en, The chocolate box) due to its shape, with a "flat" stand on one side of the pitch and three steep stands rou ...
, home of
Boca Juniors
Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...
. In a classic South American match-up,
defending champions Santos defeated the ''Xeneixes'' on both legs of the final to retain the title.
Qualified teams
Format and tie-breaking criteria
Due to the uneven number of teams, the first round became a group stage with two groups of three and one group of two. The format for the semifinals and the finals remained the same as the previous season.
At each stage of the tournament teams receive 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and no points for a loss. If two or more teams are equal on points, the following criteria will be applied to determine the ranking in the group stage:
#a
one-game playoff
A one-game playoff, sometimes known as a pennant playoff, tiebreaker game or knockout game, is a tiebreaker in certain sports—usually but not always professional—to determine which of two teams, tied in the final standings, will qualify for a ...
;
#superior goal difference;
#draw of lots.
First round
Eight teams were drawn into two groups of three and one group of two. In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away. The top team in each group advanced to the Semifinals.
Santos, the title holders, had a
bye to the next round.
Group 1
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Group 2
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Group 3
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Knockout stage
Bracket
Four teams were drawn into two groups. In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away. The top team in each group advanced to the Finals.
Group A
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Group B
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Finals
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Champion
Top goalscorers
Footnotes
:A. Not played after Millonarios (already eliminated) preferred paying a fine of USD 4,500 rather than traveling to Rio for the match; points awarded to Botafogo but no goals.
External links
Copa Libertadores 1963at CONMEBOL website
at RSSSF
{{Copa Libertadores Seasons
1
Copa Libertadores seasons