Copa Aldao - Summary

Summary

Friendly matches were common between clubs from Argentina and Uruguay in the early 1900s due to the close proximity of the nations. Inevitably, a match to decide which national champion was the best formulated; the trophy of the competition was donated by Ricardo Aldao, then President of both, club Gimnasia y Esgrima de Buenos Aires and dissident association "Federación Argentina de Football". As such, the competition was named after his donation. The first edition was organized in 1913, to be contested between Estudiantes de La Plata from Argentina and River Plate from Uruguay. However, the final was suspended due to heavy rain. The first champion of the competition was not crowned until 1916.

Originally, a single-legged format was adopted, with the match played in Argentina and Uruguay in alternative year. But in 1940, Boca Juniors left the field when the match was at a draw of 2-2. The title was awarded to Nacional at first, yet later on both associations did not defined clearly the champion of this year. Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol (AUF) and Argentine Football Association (AFA) studied the situation on Jan 22, 1941 and announced that a two-legged format would be adopted in the following seasons. Since then, the competition was play two-legged except the 1942 edition, when the second leg was not played and the trophy was awarded to Nacional, the winner of the first leg.

By 1947, interest in a continental championship was being kindled. The interest led to the creation of the Campeonato Sudamericano de Campeones played in 1948. This tournament brought together many national champions from South America in order to dispute which club was the best of the continent. As a result, the Copa Aldao was seen as a near-obsolete competition and it was not played again until 1959. One last attempt was made to revilitilize the competition in 1955 in a match between Nacional and River Plate. However, the competition was not played until 4 years later and the second leg was never played at all as Nacional refused play the second leg in Buenos Aires. Thus, the title was not officially proclaimed. As a result to the schedule congestion of the growing national leagues (as well as the creation of the new continental club tournament, the Copa Campeones de América) the Copa Aldao became redundant and was never played again. The Copa Aldao was disputed between Nacional and Vélez Sarsfield in 1998 but it was treated as a pre-season friendly.