Pre-Libertadores tournament
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Pre-Libertadores tournament was a qualifying association football competition between two clubs from Venezuela and two clubs from Mexico for the Copa Libertadores, it was held from 1998 to 2002. The tournament consisted of two rounds, the preliminary round named Selectivo Pre Pre-Libertadores between Mexican clubs interested in participating, and the final round named Liguilla Pre-Libertadores Mexico-Venezuela between the champions and runners-up of the Liga FUTVE and the two Mexican clubs that qualified from the preliminary round.
The tournament was an initiative of Mexican promoters, close to the FMF and the Televisa company, who sought to get Mexican teams into CONMEBOL continental club competition.[1]
In 1997, Grupo Pegaso (founded by Alejandro Burillo Azcárraga[2]), through promoter Eduardo Aguirre, began talks with the Venezuelan league clubs and the FVF to purchase the slots that corresponded to Venezuelan teams in the Copa Libertadores (2 direct slots at that time). Negotiations lasted until December of that year when the parties reached an agreement in a meeting held in Asunción, Paraguay; the two Venezuelan slots in the Copa Libertadores would be disputed in a qualifying tournament by two Venezuelan and two Mexican teams, in exchange, the Mexican side was to make a payment of US$200,000 to each Venezuelan team participating and US$80,000 to the FVF.[3] The agreement had CONMEBOL's approval, however, CONCACAF's permission was still needed to allow the Mexican teams to participate.
In early January 1998, Rafael Esquivel, president of the FVF at the time, and his treasurer Emiliano Rodríguez travel to Mexico to finalize the details of the tournament and then to the United States to meet with CONCACAF authorities. Finally, CONCACAF authorized the participation of the Mexican teams and 3 February is announced as the start date of the tournament.[4]
The competition was replaced by the InterLiga in 2004, as the qualification method for Mexican clubs.
