South American soccer’s governing body Conmebol would consider hosting the Copa Libertadores final outside of the continent to help grow the competition globally.
The annual tournament has been running since 1960 and is viewed as the most prestigious trophy available in domestic South American club football.
This year’s men’s final between Brazilian clubs Palmeiras and Flamengo is taking place at the Estadio Monumental in Lima, Peru, on November 29. The women’s final took place last month, with Brazilian club Corinthians defeating Colombian side Deportivo Cali at the Estadio Florencio Sola in Banfield, Argentina.
However, Juan Emilio Roa, Conmebol’s commercial director, has told The Athletic that the competition’s organisers have discussed the possibility of hosting the final outside of South America for the first time
“This is a topic that is normally on the table and under evaluation,” Roa said. “I can tell you that we have now decided on a roadmap for the next years, but we are evaluating, for sure.
“This is part of the things we need to do to grow the interest, so we are working on a mix of things to make the interest grow outside of South America. We are working on developing storytelling and brand experience during the final and trying to produce more stories about the clubs and players.”
Botafogo won last year’s final in Buenos Aires, Argentina (Buda Mendes/Getty Images)
Last month, UEFA — the governing body of European soccer — “regrettably” approved a landmark move to allow Italian and Spanish domestic league matches to be staged abroad. Spain’s La Liga had been aiming to stage December’s league match between Villarreal and Barcelona in Miami, but that proposal was postponed last month. Italy’s Serie A, meanwhile, are planning to play February’s scheduled game between AC Milan and Como in Perth, Australia.
In 2018, the last year in which the men’s Libertadores final was played over two legs, saw the second match between Buenos Aires-based rivals River Plate and Boca Juniors take place in Madrid, Spain.
Real Madrid’s Bernabeu stadium was chosen to be the neutral host of the game, which River won 3-1 after extra time, following an attack on the Boca team bus before their scheduled away game. At the time, Conmebol cited “security measures”, “the exceptional nature of the situation” and the 250,000-strong Argentinian diaspora in Spain for moving the match outside of South America.
Conmebol is in the midst of selling the Latin American TV rights for the Copa Libertadores and the Sudamericana for the 2027-30 cycle.
IMG, the global sports marketing agency, is assisting with the sale that will consist of seven packages being sold in Brazil and seven across the rest of South America.
The tender process opened on September 30 and closes on November 10, with the number of broadcasters — both traditional and streaming platforms — at the table already into the double figures, Evandro Figueira, IMG’s vice president of rights in Latin America, told The Athletic.
Conmebol and IMG are anticipating an uptick on the almost $1.5billion they received from the sale of the Latin American TV rights for the 2023-26 cycle.
“We are not looking for partners that are buying the Conmebol rights and putting them in the drawer and not airing them because that’s not something that would contribute to the success of the event,” Figueira said.
“The 90 minutes is the easiest part. The next step is exposure, not only specifically about the games themselves, but about everything that broadcasters will do around the matches. What we want to know is how they are going to promote their broadcast and Conmebol’s competitions.
“One of the players (broadcasters) in the meeting said, ‘Yeah, we do all of that because the next time you come around, you ask us for more money’. We said, ‘Yeah, that’s kind of how it operates!’.”
River Plate were victorious at Real Madrid’s Bernabeu in 2018 (Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
This year’s Copa Libertadores final will be broadcast in over 190 countries, likely making it one of the most-watched sporting events of the year, and an effort has been made to accommodate the European market with a kick-off time of 9pm CET (8pm GMT, 3pm ET, 12pm PT).
“We are leaders in South America,” Roa said, “(and) the Copa Libertadores already has a global footprint with a strong audience, especially in the United States, Europe, and especially among Latin American communities and international football fans.”
“As Juan said, in South America we are the biggest property by far,” Figueira added, “(but) we are always working closely with broadcast partners in other countries. We know that outside of South America, we need to grow.”
Figueira suggested the most likely outcome from the tender process is that the Latin American TV rights for the Conmebol competitions remain with multiple broadcasters instead of the packages being snapped up exclusively.
The most recent cycle (2023-26) saw deals with Disney (ESPN), Paramount, Globo, OneFootball, DirecTV and SBT, the free-to-air Brazilian television network.
“We have seen very, very strong interest, even higher than the previous cycle,” Roa said. “The interest is coming from a balance of traditional broadcast and streaming platforms.
“The streamers are not necessarily global ones like Amazon, for example, we have local ones that are super strong in a specific region, such as Caze TV (a South American YouTube channel). They have a lot of properties and a good penetration in terms of audience.”
Asked if it essentially boils down to who will pay the most money, Roa noted “money is a big important piece of the evaluation process”, but stressed it isn’t the only factor taken into consideration, with “coverage and distribution plans” being a pivotal part of the process.
“We are evaluating plans on how broadcasters can work with us to make the brand position with Libertadores and Sudamericana, not just in South America but around the world, even bigger.
“This is an important decision for us and we are prioritising a strategic partnership that brings innovation, digital expansion and global reach, and not just money.”
