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Libertadores Cup or Champions League?
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The Libertadores Cup, the South American equivalent of the Champions League, is generally looked upon as a poor relation to its European counterpart. Stadiums are often rustic, the threat of crowd and player violence hangs in the air and the tournament has long suffered from an unfortunate reputation for dirty tricks and general nastiness.******But watching both competitions of late, you can certainly make a case for the Libertadores being, if nothing else, the more entertaining and open of the two.******Over the last two weeks, the eighth-finals have produced superb goals and endless drama played, mostly, in a passionate atmosphere. There were Renato’s two long-range goals for Flamengo against Defensor Sporting, Ze Roberto’s backheeled effort for Santos against Caracas FC and Juan Roman Riquelme hitting the crossbar twice in four minutes for Boca Juniors against Velez Sarsfield, to name but a few.******The all-Argentine tie between Boca and Velez, won 4-3 on aggregate by the former, featured two teams prepared to attack and playing with typical Argentine flair. It is hard to imagine a more refreshing contrast to the all-English bore served up by Liverpool and Chelsea in their Champions League semi-final.******In all, the 16 ties played over the last two weeks produced 49 goals with not a single goaless draw among them.******The quarter-finals will feature teams from six of the region’s 11 countries — Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. Only one of them, Paraguay’s Libertad, reached the same stage last year. Defensor Sporting (Uruguay) and Cucuta (Colombia) have reached this stage for the first time.******Of course, nobody can deny there is a difference in class between the two tournaments. But the fact the annual meeting of the Libertadores and Champions League winners in Japan has been won by the South Americans for the two years suggests that even the gap in quality is not as great as many believe.******Brian Homewood is a Reuters sports correspondent based in Rio de Janeiro
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The Wall
The Copa Libertadores is a superb competition with goals guaranteed. Because it does not involve the same amounts of money as the Champions League, the shackles are off and often the entertainment value is far superior to its European counterpart.Sadly, there is a distinct lack of interest in the competition at least in England, and no channel has bothered even to provide a highlights package, so it is proving difficult to follow. Last year, at least, Channel 4 did have an excellent, regular highlights programme but alas nothing this time around. Is it just a lack of interest or is it possible the organisers are charging too much for other countries to screen highlights I wonder.
It’s the same here in Germany, Matt. I never see any sign of it on the schedules, tho perhaps I’m just not looking hard enough. Interesting point about how much they’re charging. Brian, do you know if they attempt to sell the TV rights in Europe?