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 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.
From 2000 to 2002, the Campeonato do Nordeste champions granted qualification to the
Copa dos Campeões.
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
Recurring sporting events established in 1976