Recopa Sudamericana - Format

Format

Unlike most other competitions around the world, the Recopa Sudamericana do not use extra time, an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw, or away goals, a method of breaking ties in football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground, to decide a tie that was level on aggregate.

From 1988 to 1995, teams would be awarded 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss). From 1995 onwards, the "Three points for a win" standard, a system adopted by FIFA in 1995 that places additional value on wins, was adopted in CONMEBOL, with teams now earning 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss. If both teams are level on points after two legs, goal difference would come into play. An immediate winner a penalty shootout, a method used in football to decide which team progresses to the next stage of a tournament (or wins the tournament) following a tied game via kicking penalty kicks, was used to determine a winner if the match was tied on goal difference.

Since the competition takes place in the mid-winter, it's disputed between the champions of the previous year's forementioned competitions. Because of this, some count the year of the championship by the qualification year rather than that of the competition itself. Thus, CONMEBOL states that Nacional from Uruguay won the first Recopa of 1989, whereas the RSSSF refers to that championship as Recopa 1988.