Well. Quite a few teams have already qualified for the competition next year. The Mexican clubs will return to the competition after being rather rudely punted out due to the Swine Flu outbreak this year and it had been announced by CONMEBOL that Guadalajara FC and San Luis will start in the competition at the round of 16, the same stage of the competition they "withdrew" at last year. They will be joined by a further three clubs via the league system in Mexico.
Estudiantes qualify by right because of their victory in the competition last year and they are joined so far by Vélez Sársfield who were the victors in the Clausura in Argentina this year. The Apetura champions will also qualify and then the final three places are decided by average over both competitions. Don't be surprised if Boca Juniors and River Plate don't make it.
Bolivár, the Apertura champions of Bolivia are the only qualifiers from that country at the moment, as are Corinthians from Brazil thanks to their victory in the Copa do Brasil. Universidad de Chile, currently in the last 8 of the Sudamericana are Chile's only qualifiers so far. In Colombia, Once Caldas return to the big stage with places still to be decided whilst all the berths in Ecuador and Peru are still up for grabs. Cerro Porteño, another team doing well in the Sudamericana this year, are the only Paraguayan qualifiers so far.
Only in Uruguay and Venezuela are the qualifiers already known. In Uruguay Primera División winners Club Nacional are joined by Cerro and Racing Club de Montevideo whilst in Venezuela champions Caracas will be joined by Deportivo Italia and Deportivo Táchira.
The competition gets underway with 12 teams entering the Preliminary knockout stage in January. The group stages will take place before the end of May but due to the FIFA World Cup the knockout stages will be held over until the conclusion of events in South Africa which will put the final sometime in August.
We'll be following the action all the way here at CONMEBalls.
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