The Copa Libertadores de América is an annual international football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is one of the most important tournaments and the most prestigious football club competition in Latin America. The tournament is named in honor of the Libertadores (its name into English would be "America's Liberators Cup"), the main leaders of the South American wars of
independence.
Evolution of the Libertadores logo and its different sponsors.
In 1998, the competition added the Toyota Motor Corporation as its main sponsor, resulting in a change in the name of the competition: "Copa Toyota Libertadores" and the Mexican teams were invited to compete, and have played regularly since 2000, when the tournament expanded from 20 to 32 teams. Today at least three clubs per country compete in the tournament, while Argentina and Brazil each have five participating clubs. Traditionally, a group phase has always been used, but the number of teams per group has varied several times.
The 2008 edition also marked the change of the name from "Copa Toyota Libertadores" to "Copa Santander Libertadores" due to a new sponsorship contract with Spanish bank Santander. Grupo Santander, one of the largest banks in the world who signed a five-year contract with CONMEBOL from 2008. The third major sponsor was Bridgestone, who signed a sponsorship deal for naming rights for a period of five years from 2013 edition to 2017 and the tournament known as the Bridgestone Libertadores Cup.
For the 2017 season, the historic Copa Libertadores will change its name to "Conmebol Libertadores Bridgestone (Formerly known as the Bridgestone Libertadores Cup). The new Copa Libertadores logo is now all gold, and symbolizes the precious wealth that can be found in South America. It also aims to celebrate the "Eternal Glory", the creative concept that was inspired by the bravery of the inhabitants of South America, in drawing their common dreams. The lines that we see in the new logo, become larger at the tips, to show the way to success. In order to win the championship there must be passion and effort. Also in the lower center of the logo, we see in a negative space the previous trophy used, which represents the effort of all teams to be left on the field all the delivery to be able to win. Bridgestone tire manufacturer is sponsor of the competition since the 2013 edition.