Copa do Nordeste (''Cup of the North-East''), also known as Campeonato do Nordeste (''Championship of the North-East'') or Copa Nordeste (''Northeastern Cup''), and sometimes informally referred as Lampions League – in reference to the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

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, and murder, either as an ...

Lampião "Captain" Virgulino Ferreira da Silva (), better known as Lampião (older spelling: ''Lampeão'', , meaning "lantern" or "oil lamp"), was probably the twentieth century's most successful traditional bandit leader. The banditry endemic to the Brazi ...

, is a Brazilian

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 ...

competition among Northeastern region teams.

History

The competition was first played in 1976, as Torneio José Américo de Almeida Filho. It was played, as Campeonato do Nordeste for first time, in 1994. From 1997 to 1999, the Campeonato do Nordeste champions granted qualification to

Copa Conmebol The Copa CONMEBOL ( en, CONMEBOL Cup) 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 cont ...

. 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, 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 ...

. The Copa do Nordeste champion now qualifies to the

Copa do Brasil The Copa do Brasil ( en, Brazil Cup) 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 the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça de ...

Competition format

Since 2018 a qualifying tournament called Pré-Copa do Nordeste 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.

List of champions

Performances

By club

By state

References

External links

RSSSF
{{Brazilian Football Competitions

Nordeste The Northeast Region of Brazil ( pt, Região Nordeste do Brasil; ) is one of the five official and political regions of the country according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Of Brazil's twenty-six states, it comprises ni ...

Recurring sporting events established in 1976