| Copa Paraguay | |
| Organiser: | APF |
| Founded: | 2018 |
| Region: | Paraguay |
| Qualifier For: | Supercopa Paraguay |
| Number Of Teams: | 74 |
| Current Champions: | Libertad (2nd title) |
| Most Successful Club: | Libertad (2 titles) |
| Broadcasters: | Tigo Sports |
| Motto: | La Copa de Todos (Everyone's cup) |
| Current: | 2024 Copa Paraguay |
The Copa Paraguay is a knockout football competition in men's domestic Paraguayan football, starting in 2018 and succeeding the defunct Torneo República. The project for its creation was officially presented in December 2017 and approved by the Paraguayan Football Association's Executive Committee on 20 February 2018.[1]
The competition starts in April and ends in November, with the winner of the cup qualifying for the following year's Copa Libertadores (Copa Sudamericana until the 2022 edition).[2] If the cup winner has already qualified for South American competitions through the league, then the cup runner-up (or the third-placed team) will qualify. If the top three teams have all already qualified for South American competitions through the league, then the best-placed team in the Paraguayan Primera División that has not yet qualified for an international competition will qualify for the Copa Sudamericana.[3] Starting from the 2021 edition, the winner also qualifies for the Supercopa Paraguay.
For its first edition in 2018, the competition was divided into two stages: a preliminary stage and the national stage.
In the preliminary stage, teams from the Primera B, Primera C, and the UFI competed for 20 berths to the national stage: 7 Primera B teams, 6 from the Primera C, and 7 from the UFI qualified for the next stage of the competition.
In the national stage, the 12 Primera División teams and the 16 División Intermedia teams entered the competition, for a total of 48 teams which were drawn into 24 ties, with the winners qualifying for the second round. The 12 second round winners as well as the four best losers advanced to the round of 16. From that point onwards, the Copa Paraguay continued as a single-elimination tournament.[4]
However, starting from the following edition, the competition was expanded from 48 to 64 teams, allowing for greater participation from teams from the lower tiers and scrapping the preliminary round.[5] It continued being a single-elimination tournament, with all teams entering the competition in the first stage. In April 2022, APF confirmed that a total of 74 teams would join the 2022 edition.[6]
| width= | Year | Winners | Final score | Runners-up | Third place | Fourth place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resistencia | |||||||
| Sol de América | |||||||
| 2020 | Not played due to the COVID-19 pandemic | ||||||
| Tembetary | |||||||
| Guaraní | |||||||
| Club | Winners | Runners-up | Winning years | Runners-up years | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Libertad | 2019, 2023 | — | |||
| Guaraní | 2018 | 2019 | |||
| Olimpia | 2021 | 2018 | |||
| Sportivo Ameliano | 2022 | — | |||
| Sol de América | — | 2021 | |||
| Nacional | — | 2022 | |||
| Sportivo Trinidense | — | 2023 |
| League | Winners | Runners-up | Third place | Fourth place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primera División | 5 | 5 | 5 | 2 | |
| División Intermedia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Primera División B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |