Reaching their epilogue

South America thinks regional to replace doomed cups

ASUNCION (Reuters) -- South American football directors will meet on Thursday to discuss the idea of creating yet another new tournament to replace the doomed the Merconorte and Mercosur cups, which face extinction after only four years.

"The Mercosur and Merconorte have reached their epilogue," said South American Football Confederation (CSF) spokesman Nestor Benitez, after a year which saw attendances in the Merconorte slump to as low as six paying spectators.

"The idea is to replace these tournaments with one including teams from South America, Central America and North America."

"We have an idea of what this tournament could be," he added.

The Copa Mercosur is a made-for-television tournament held in the second half of the year and featuring 20 of the biggest clubs from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

They take part by invitation and are hand-picked by the CSF. Apart from this year, when Talleres replaced fellow Argentines Racing Club, the Mercosur has featured the same teams every year.

The Merconorte is a similar competition involving clubs from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, the United States and Venezuela.

Neither tournament has managed to get off the ground, with many clubs resting their top players for domestic competitions.

The Merconorte has even seen clubs fielding reserve teams in the final.

Another indignity

The Merconorte's popularity slumped even further this year when one match -- between Aucas of Ecuador and Alianza Lima of Peru -- was watched by only six paying spectators.

The contest suffered further indignity when Ecuador's Emelec used a Merconorte tie as a preliminary for a game in the domestic championship.

They fielded their reserves in the Merconorte and their first team in the following game.

Mexico's Guadalajara, faced with a trip to New York to play the MetroStars, simply pulled out of the competition altogether, saying they preferred to spend the week training for a crunch match with domestic rivals America.

Coach Oscar Ruggeri said: "The Americans don't even know the Merconorte is still going on."

Guadalajara were later banned for two years from all CSF-organized tournaments.

The first half of the year is devoted to the Libertadores Cup -- South America's equivalent of the European Champions League -- which has survived the test of time and has been held every year since 1960.

The Merconorte and Mercosur themselves replaced the Supercopa and Conmebol Cups.

The Supercopa, played every year between past winners of the Libertadores Cup, was relatively successful but the Conmebol Cup was another contest which failed to catch fire.

Other tournaments to have been attempted include the Masters Cup, played between past Supercopa winners, and the Recopa, an annual meeting of the Libertadores and Supercopa winners usually held in Japan.

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