User:Bmf 051/sandbox/2024 Copa Sudamericana

The 2024 Copa CONMEBOL Sudamericana is the 23rd edition of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana (also referred to as the Copa Sudamericana), South America's secondary club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. The competition began on 5 March and is scheduled to end on 23 November 2024, with the final to be played in Asunción, Paraguay. This will be the first season under a new format, where in the league phase each team plays eight games against different opponents, but all 36 teams are ranked in a joint group. This season will also see the return of invitees from Mexico for the first time since 2008, and from Major League Soccer for the first time since 2007.

The winners of the 2024 Copa Sudamericana will earn the right to play against the winners of the 2024 Copa Libertadores in the 2025 Recopa Sudamericana. They will also automatically qualify for the 2025 Copa Libertadores league stage.

LDU Quito are the titleholders, but since they qualified for the 2024 Copa Libertadores league stage as Copa Sudamericana champions, they will be unable to defend their title.

Teams
The following 44 teams from the 10 CONMEBOL associations qualified for the tournament:
 * Argentina and Brazil: 6 berths each
 * All other leagues: 4 berths each

Additionally, 4 teams each from Liga MX and Major League Soccer (MLS) will enter as guests

The entry stage will depend on the number of teams from each association entering from the 2024 Copa Libertadores 2024 Copa Libertadores#Qualifying stages|first and second stages:
 * Second stage or league stage: Teams from Argentina and Brazil
 * First stage or Second stage: Teams from all other associations or guest leagues


 * Notes

A further 19 teams eliminated from the 2024 Copa Libertadores will be transferred to the Copa Sudamericana. Teams from Brazil and Argentina and teams eliminated in the third stage of the Copa Libertadores enter the league stage while the remaining teams enter the second stage.

Schedule
The schedule of the competition is as follows:

Draws
The first and second stage did not have a draw. The ties were decided based on the rankings within each association or guest league, with each tie consisting of two teams from the same association or guest league. The losers of the Copa Libertadores first and second stages enter this round, and were seeded higher than teams qualifying directly. Also, a team losing in the second stage of the Copa Libertadores is seeded higher than a team losing in then first, regardless of how they ranked for the Copa Libertadores.
 * Two team play-off
 * Second stage: Higher-seed hosts lower-seed
 * Four team play-off
 * Second stage: 1 seed hosts 4 seed, 2 seed hosts 3 seed
 * Five team play-off
 * First stage: 4 seed hosts 5 seed
 * Second stage: 1 seed hosts first stage winners, 2 seed hosts 3 seed
 * Six team play-off
 * First stage: 3 seed hosts 6 seed and 4 seed hosts 5 seed
 * Second stage: 1 seed hosts winners of 4 vs. 5, 2 seed hosts winners of 3 vs. 6

The draw for the league stage was held on 18 March 2024, 20:00 PYST (UTC−3), at the CONMEBOL Convention Centre in Luque, Paraguay.

Teams were seeded by their CONMEBOL Clubs ranking as of 18 December 2023 (shown in parentheses), taking into account the following three factors:
 * 1) Performance in the last 10 years, taking into account Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana results in the period 2014–2023.
 * 2) Historical coefficient, taking into account Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana results in the period 1960–2013 and 2002–2013 respectively.
 * 3) Local tournament champion, with bonus points awarded to domestic league champions of the last 10 years.

For the league stage, the 36 teams were drawn against two opponents from each pot including their own, one home and one away, for a total of eight matches per team. In general, teams from the same association or guest league could not be drawn against each other. However to avoid deadlocking, teams from Brazil and Argentina could have up to one match against an opponent from the same association.

The clubs finishing in positions 9 to 24 in the league phase enter the knockout round playoffs, while the teams finishing in position 1 to 8 receive a bye to the round of 16. No draw will be used for the knockout round playoffs. Instead, ties will be determined by league phase position as follows: 9 vs. 24. 10 vs. 23, 11 vs. 22, 12 vs. 21, 13 vs. 20, 14 vs. 19, 15 vs. 18, 16 vs. 17.

The draw for the round of 16 onward will take place on 3 June 2024. Placement in the bracket will be based on the league stage rankings. Each team (the teams in positions 1 to 8 in the league phase and the eight knockout playoff round tie winners) will be drawn into one of two possible positions, using the following seeding pairs: clubs in positions 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, 7 and 8, the winners of 9 vs. 24 and 10 vs. 23, the winners of 11 vs. 22 and 12 vs. 21, the winners of 13 vs. 20 and 14 vs. 19, and the winners of 15 vs. 18 and 16 vs. 17.

Qualifying stages
In the qualifying stages, each tie was played on a single-leg basis, with the winner being decided in a penalty shoot-out in case of a draw after 90 minutes.

The 21 winners of the first stage advanced to the league stage to join the 11 teams directly qualified for that stage (six from Argentina and five from Brazil), and four teams transferred from the Copa Libertadores (the four teams eliminated in the third stage of qualifying).

First stage

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Second stage

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Final stages
In the final stages, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The home team for the second leg of each tie and the "home" team for the neutral site final (for administrative purposes) will be the the team that finished in the higher position in the league stage.

The top 8 teams from the league stage received byes to the round of 16 while the teams finishing 9 to 24 played in the knockout round play-offs, with match-ups based solely on the final league stage rankings.

A draw was used to place the teams in positions in the bracket, with each of the 16 teams (the teams seeded 1–8 and the eight knockout round play-off winners) each being drawn into one of two possible positions in the round of 16.

Knockout round play-offs

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Round of 16

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Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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