The Copa Uruguay (officially Copa AUF Uruguay)
is a knockout football competition in men's domestic Uruguayan
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
, starting in 2022.
The competition starts in June, with the winner of the cup qualifying for the following year's
Supercopa Uruguaya
The Supercopa Uruguaya (''Uruguayan Supercup'') is an annual one-match football official competition in Uruguay organised by the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF) which is played between the Primera División champions and the Torneo Intermedio ...
, starting from the 2025 edition.
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History
Historically, Uruguayan football never had a national cup tournament, aside from a competition called ''Torneo de Copa'', which happened only in 1969. In 2018, teams started to mobilize in favour of the creation of a national cup, but nothing came of it.
On 20 April 2022, the Uruguayan Football Association
The Uruguayan Football Association ( — ) is the governing body of association football, football in Uruguay. It was founded in 1900, as The Uruguayan Association Football League, and affiliated to FIFA in 1923. It is a founding member of CONMEB ...
announced the creation of the ''Copa AUF Uruguay'', being approved by several clubs involved.[ The first edition of the competition, which was played from 22 June to 13 November 2022, was won by ]Defensor Sporting
Defensor Sporting Club is a sports club based in Montevideo, Uruguay. Founded in 1913, Defensor has several sports sections, with football and basketball being the most important and the ones in which the club has achieved significant achievement ...
who defeated La Luz
La Luz is a census-designated place (CDP) in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,615 at the 2000 census. It is located immediately north of Alamogordo and lies in the eastern edge of the Tularosa Basin and on the ...
in the final.
Format
For its first edition in 2022
The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...
, the competition was divided into two stages: a preliminary stage and the national stage.[
In the preliminary stage, teams from the amateur lower leagues compete for 20 berths to the national stage. In the first phase of the national stage, 24 teams from the Primera División Amateur and ]Segunda División
The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...
enter the competition, for a total of 48 teams which are divided into 24 ties, with the winners qualifying for the second round. The 24 second round winners advance to play against each other to define 12 winners into the third phase.[
32 teams play in the third phase: 12 winners from the previous phase, 16 professional teams from the Primera División, the best relegated team of Primera División the previous season, the defending champion of the Primera División Amateur and the defending champion and runner-up of the ''Copa Nacional de Clubes''. From this point onwards, the winners play against each other in two-legged knockout phases, with the Final being played in a single match.][
The winner of the competition is also awarded a ]US$
The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
100,000 prize.[
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Results
Performance by club
References
{{National football Cups (CONMEBOL region)
National association football cups
Football in Uruguay