Copa Libertadores Femenina

What is the Copa Libertadores Femenina?

The CONMEBOL Libertadores Femenina is the women’s club championship of South America, played by 16 clubs from the confederation’s ten member associations in a single host country over about two weeks. Its 2025 winner qualified for the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup in 2026, giving the competition a world-level prize for the first time.^[1] [2]

How does it work?

The league champions of the ten associations are joined by extra entrants — for 2026, three from Brazil including the holders, two each from Chile, Colombia, Paraguay and host Ecuador — for a group stage of four groups of four in single round-robin, with the top two in each group going to the quarter-finals, then semi-finals and a final. The 2026 edition is in Ecuador from 15 to 31 October, with the draw on 14 September at CONMEBOL’s headquarters in Luque; fourteen of the sixteen clubs were known by 11 September, with Colombia’s two entrants still to come. Since 2019 CONMEBOL has required men’s Libertadores clubs to field a women’s team.^{[2] [3] [5]}

Since when does it exist?

The competition was first played in 2009 and was a 12-club tournament until 2018; the 2019 edition in Ecuador, which the AFA announced as the eleventh, was the first with 16 clubs from all ten associations. Brazilian clubs have won every edition since 2019, and Corinthians’ 2025 title, on penalties against Deportivo Cali in Banfield, completed the first three-peat in the competition’s history and took the club to a record six.^{[1] [4] [5]}

Winners of the last ten editions.

Why does it matter?

It is the top women’s club title in South America and, since 2025, the continent’s route to the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup. For a player at a Brazilian, Colombian, Chilean or Venezuelan club, a Libertadores Femenina appearance is continental competition on the record — the same class of evidence that the men’s Libertadores provides.^[1]