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The Copa Libertadores is the most important international football club competition in South America. Throughout the history of the tournament, 22 teams from seven countries have won the competition. Its rich history has been saturated with many legendary matches, iconic players and exceptional teams; from Peñarol's historical consegration in 1960, to Coutinho and Pelé enchanting the world with Santos's magical football, down to Estudiantes's unlikely success at the end of the 1960s, and Club Atlético Independiente being brought to glory in the utmost manner. Juan Carlos Lorenzo's legendary upbringing of Boca Juniors, seeing Flamengo engrave their names on the winner's list at the hands of a squad led by Zico, René Higuita's memorable saves against Olimpia, São Paulo's ''time dos sonhos'' coached by legend Telê Santana and Carlos Bianchi's exploits with Boca Juniors and Vélez Sársfield are some of the more recent stories still talked about till this day. The Copa Libertadores is, arguably, the most important club trophy in the world. The sport was introduced to South America in many different ways. For example, football was introduced to Argentina in the latter half of the 19th century by the British immigrants in Buenos Aires, while Colombia was exposed to football in the early 20th century. An expatriate named Charles William Miller introduced the sport to Brazil. Football was first brought to Chile by the British that exhibited the sport during visits to the commercial ports such as in Valparaíso. Dutchman William Paats, who moved from the Netherlands to Asunción (the capital of Paraguay) in 1888, introduced football to Paraguay, as well as laying the foundations for a classic South American club. ==The dawn to the Copa Libertadores== The roots of the competition had existed for a long while the South American spirit of competition at club level was present since the beginning of the century. During the 1930s and 1940s, Argentinean and Uruguayan clubs vied for the Copa Río de La Plata between their respective champions rotating the location of the final every a year Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The delegates of Colo-Colo, after years of insistence, managed to push CONMEBOL into creating the first continental tournament. The Copa de Campeones became the first "prototype" and it was successfully played in 1948 in what is now considered an official title in South America; Vasco da Gama won the competition played entirely in Santiago, Chile. For all this, the subject of the South American Congress held in 1958 in Rio de Janeiro was not unknown to board members: Raúl Colombo and Eduardo Palma of Argentina, Fermín Sorhueta, Washington Cataldi, Luis Tróccoli and Juan Carlos Bracco of Uruguay, doctor Alfredo Gallindo of Bolivia, Lydio Quevedo of Paraguay, Teófilo Salinas of Perú, Alberto Goñi of Chile, and Joao Havelange and Abilio D'Almeida of Brazil. The secretary general of the Union des Associations Européennes de Football, or UEFA, Henry Delaunay, submitted a proposal to the then-head of CONMEBOL José Ramos de Freitas of Brazil to organize an annual double confrontation between the champions of Europe and South America in what was seen as a welcomed but unneeded incentive. The proposal for the creation of a South American club championship was supported by Argentina and Brazil but was opposed by Uruguay, a country which at that time still had a transcendent pre-eminence in the decision-making of the confederation, sharing political and continental power with Argentina. Brazil had just won their first World Cup and had not yet the privileges or political weight that presently holds.〔(En Caracas nació la Copa Libertadores de América )〕 Uruguay's opposition was based on that "the competition being promoted would go against the interest of the South American national-team championships". Moreover, Argentina, with the support of Brazil, had proposed that those tournaments should be played every four years instead of every two in early 1957 (in which Uruguay strongly opposed as they were the main architects of the ''Campeonato Sudamericano''). On March 5, 1959, the Chilean delegates insisted and proposed the creation of the South American club tournament at the 24th South American Congress held in Buenos Aires which was approved by the International Affairs Committee. Only the Uruguayans voted against it. The tournament would be named in homage of the heroes of South American history such as Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín, Manuel Belgrano, Bernardo O'Higgins, José Miguel Carrera, José Gervasio Artigas, Antonio José de Sucre, Ramón Castilla, José Joaquín de Olmedo, among others: the ''Copa Libertadores de America''. That was the last deed of José Ramos de Freitas as president of CONMEBOL who relinquished his position to the newly elected president, Uruguayan Sorhueta Fermin. In Montevideo, the idea was approved with the presence of all 10 CONMEBOL representatives to finally begin the development of the tournament with the first edition being played by seven participants. The club President of Peñarol, Washington Cataldi, explained years later: 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the Copa Libertadores」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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