The Copa Verde ( en, Green Cup) is an annual regional knockout

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 in Brazil that started in 2014, and played by 24 teams from the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and Central-West regions, plus

Espírito Santo Espírito Santo (, , ; ) is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist attra ...

(Espírito Santo state was included because they competed in the old

Copa Centro Oeste Copa Centro-Oeste ( en, Center-West Cup) was a Brazilian football competition contested between Center-West region teams and teams from the Southeastern State Espírito Santo. For one edition, it was also contested by teams from Minas Gerais. ...

). Initially, the champion of the tournament gained a place in the next year'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 ...

. With the changes implemented by

CONMEBOL The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental governing body of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Suri ...

in 2016 causes a competition no longer qualify in Copa Sudamericana from edition. The champion will now have a spot in the third round of 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 ...

of the following year. The cup is organized by the

Brazilian Football Confederation The Brazilian Football Confederation ( pt, Confederação Brasileira de Futebol; CBF) is the governing body of football in Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country ...

(CBF), with two-legged playoff games played from between the 24 participating teams.

History

The tournament was created with the purpose of making a North Region version of the

Copa do Nordeste 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 Ch ...

, hence the name Verde, meaning green, is an allusion to the Amazon Forest. The competition was expanded to include clubs from the Central-West Region and from Espírito Santo state (as the state competed in the defunct

Copa Centro-Oeste Copa Centro-Oeste ( en, Center-West Cup) was a Brazilian football competition contested between Center-West region teams and teams from the Southeastern State Espírito Santo. For one edition, it was also contested by teams from Minas Gerais. ...

). The competition was officially announced in September by the competitions director of the Brazilian Football Confederation.

In the community

Since its creation in 2014, Copa Verde has been committed to sustainable practices and the preservation of the environment. With the legacy of respect for nature already consolidated and a growing reach throughout its editions, it has earned the certificate of Brazil's first Zero Carbon competition. With the trophies made of certified wood, the Brazilian Football Confederation, through its sustainability policy, has already promoted educational contests, tree planting, the use of certified paper, and the exchange of PET bottles for tickets as some of its actions on behalf of the environment. Besides the concern with flora, Copa Verde also looks carefully at the species that make up the Brazilian fauna. Since the 2020 edition, the

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

and the

hyacinth macaw The hyacinth macaw (''Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus''), or hyacinthine macaw, is a parrot native to central and eastern South America. With a length (from the top of its head to the tip of its long pointed tail) of about one meter it is longer tha ...

have been printed on the clubs' shirts with special patches. The initiative aims to alert and pay tribute to these two endangered species in the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

and

Pantanal The Pantanal () is a natural region encompassing the world's largest tropical wetland area, and the world's largest flooded grasslands. It is located mostly within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but it extends into Mato Grosso and p ...

wetlands, respectively.

List of champions

Note 1: Losing semi-finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

Note 2: On July 28, 2014, the 2014 Copa Verde title was awarded to Paysandu, due to irregularities on the squad of

Brasília Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...

. Brasília appealed against this decision and obtained a suspension which reversed this decision temporarily. A final decision by the Superior Court of Sports Justice (STJD) declared Brasília as the champion.

History

In the community

List of champions

Records and statistics

Finalists

Performance by State

References