There is less and less time for all the fans to get excited about the maximum continental competition. Is that this Friday, February 5, the Copa Libertadores 2021 was drawn and Racing will already know its rivals. But beware, this time the Academy has an almost unique opportunity: it can be seeded. If this happens it would make you avoid many strong rivals who will also lead your groups.
The definition of which are the eight best teams in America is given from a ranking released by CONMEBOL every year. In this way, the eight classified with the best score will be the seed in the Copa Libertadores. However, Racing, which this year is in position 22, has the chance to be the leader of one of the groups of this edition.
The reason? In March, as a result of the coronavirus, football was completely paralyzed. This caused that the championships of Uruguay, Chile and Brazil are not defined before the draw begins. What’s more, the only classified team from those 3 countries is Palmeiras and it was achieved by being champion of the 2020 edition. Thanks to this, Racing managed to climb several positions in the ranking.
Uruguay will only have, 10 days before the start of the group stage of the Copa Libertadores, the two qualified for that instance. What’s more, the clubs that will go to phase 1 and 2 will be defined days before the competition begins. In this way, Nacional de Uruguay (leader of the tournament and that is in position 5 of the CONMEBOL ranking) will not be seeded for not being classified.
In the case of the Brazilian championship, exactly the same thing happens. The best four of the tournament are those who qualify for the group stage. Moreover, for now, those are 4 teams that are above Racing in the CONMEBOL ranking: Flamengo is sixth; Saint Paul, thirteenth; International, eighteenth; and Atlético Mineiro, where Matías Zaracho plays, is nineteenth. Brazil’s domestic tournament will only be defined in the last week of February, so no team will be classified for the group stage until that date.. Lastly, no Chilean team is above Racing.
In this way, the Acadé would have its place as seed, since Conmebol will set up the groups with the teams that already have their place secured. It would be the seventh best team in the competition behind Palmeiras (champion), River, Boca, Cerro Porteño, Olimpia (both teams from Paraguay) and Independiente de Santa Fe (Colombia). The eighth place would be occupied by the Quito League (Ecuador).
Copa Libertadores 2021: very important money for Racing
The message that Racing always brought down, with Diego Milito first and then with the leadership, is that the important thing is to participate at an international level every year. Is that the amount of money that the Copa Libertadores distributes at the awards level is a very important sum to maintain the structure of the club, the salaries up to date and not have debts. For this reason, the Academy will have, just for participating in the competition, they will have, as a reward, 3,000,000 dollars. That sum may continue to increase if he disputes the round of 16: USD 1,050,000 more. If he reaches the fourths, he will receive 1,500,000 dollars. For his part, if he participates in the semifinals, he will have 2,000,000. Finally, the runner-up receives USD 6,000,000 and the champion 15,000,000.
