South American Championship of Champions
Campeonato Sudamericano de Campeones
Campeonato Sul-Americano de Campeões |
The Campeonato Sudamericano de Campeones trophy on display. |
| Tournament details |
| Host country |
 Chile |
| City |
Santiago |
| Dates |
February 11 to March 17 |
| Teams |
7 (from 1 confederation) |
| Final positions |
| Champions |
 Vasco da Gama |
| Runners-up |
 River Plate |
| Tournament statistics |
| Matches played |
21 |
| Goals scored |
76 (3.62 per match) |
| Attendance |
830,539 (39,549 per match) |
The South American Championship of Champions (Spanish: Campeonato Sudamericano de Campeones, Portuguese: Campeonato Sul-Americano de Campeões) was a football competition played in Santiago, Chile in 1948 and the first continental-wide tournament in the history of the sport. It was played between February 11 and March 17. Vasco da Gama won the competition after earning the most points in the round-robin tournament. This tournament is seen as a precursor of the Copa Libertadores and is considered, along with the Copa Río de La Plata, as an important stepping stone towards the creation of the South American club tournament.[1]
[edit] Summary
Since the early 1910s, Argentine and Uruguayan clubs disputed the Copa Río de La Plata, a tournament played between the national champions of each nation's top national leagues. The great success of this tournament gave birth to the idea of a continental competition.
In 1929, the head executives of Nacional, Roberto Espil y José Usera Bermúdez, idealized a competition between the national champions of each Conmebol member. After analyzing the geographical distributions and distances, Espil devised a proyect in 1946 which also included the runners-up of every national league. However, it was Colo-Colo's head executive, Don Robinson Alvarez Marín, that first put it into practice and hatched the idea in the late 1930s.[2][3] In 1948, Don Luis Valenzuela, as president of the confederation, finally set into motion the antecedent of the Copa Libertadores: the Copa de Campeones.
Vasco da Gama, led by figures such as Augusto, Barbosa, Danilo, Friaça, Ademir and Chico, came away with the trophy after a deciding 0-0 draw against River Plate on the last round of matches. Vasco da Gama had already defeated Lítoral and Emelec 1-0 each, thumped Nacional 3-1, trashed Deportivo Municipal 4-0 and tied 1-1 with the host club Colo-Colo. The competition was as successful financially as it was on the field: the average public attendance per game was 39,549 spectators and the tournament generated a gross of CLP 9,493,483.[4]
The tournament was also the kickoff to the creation of the European Cup in Europe. French journalist Jacques Ferran, present during the competition, was covering the Championship for French newspaper L'Equipe. Ferran became fascinated with the proceedings of the tournament and took the idea to Gabriel Hanot, the editor of L'Equipe, once he returned to Europe. Hanot, in turn, took the envisioned idea to UEFA.[5]
[edit] Afterwards
Conmebol did not recognize the competition as an official South American tournament. Vasco da Gama, though always considered the first South American champion, had never asked recognition to that honour before to Conmebol. But in 1996, an archive was rediscovered in Conmebol telling the story of the Copa Libertadores, which stated that the tournament of 1948 was the "embryo" of the Libertadores.
The Vasco executives managed to hold a ballot for the officialization of the aforementioned honour and the title of Vasco as the first South American club champion was recognized by Conmebol as the forerunner of the Copa Libertadores [6]. The vote was almost unanimous with the only dissenting vote coming from Michel Assef, then-vice-President of arch-rivals Flamengo.
[edit] Participants
Notes:
- No national club championship existed then in Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia and Bolivia. As for Ecuador, Emelec, the Guayaquil league champion of 1946 (no league was held there in 1947) was given preference over the Quito League Champion as the Copa America 1947 matches were held all at Emelec's stadium and having Emelec's as the cornerstone of Ecuador's national team squad. As for Brazil, the champion of Rio de Janeiro state, Vasco da Gama represented Brazil. They were given preference over Palmeiras, the São Paulo state champion, since Rio won the 1946 Championship of State Teams and thus was considered the champion of the stronger league. As for Bolivia, the country was represented by the current champion of capital city La Paz. No organised club championship existed then in Colombia (that would eventually be commenced still in 1948 but later that year). Venezuela would become a party of Conmebol only in 1952. No reason is clear about the absence of a Paraguayan club, though the 1947 Paraguayan Civil War may possibly have been the reason.
- Deportivo Municipal took part in place of the Peruvian champions Atlético Chalaco, who declined the invitation to participate.
[edit] Final standings
[edit] Match results
- A. ^ CBD (CBF's predecessor from 1919 to 1979) awarded the Brazilian berth to the 1947 Rio de Janeiro champions because Rio de Janeiro had won the 1946 Brazilian Championship of State Teams.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Chile
Vasco da Gama
River Plate
Bolivia
Ecuador
Peru
Uruguay
