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Brazil given two more Copa Libertadores spots

Xinhua, October 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

Brazil has been handed two more Copa Libertadores qualifying places under a raft of changes to South America's top club competition announced on Monday.

Argentina, Colombia and Chile were also each awarded one additional berth in the competition, which has been expanded to 44 teams, South American football governing body Conmebol said.

The top six teams at the end of the previous Brazilian Serie A season will now qualify for the continental tournament, as will the winner of the Copa do Brasil.

Previously crammed into a five-month schedule that ended in July, the Copa Libertadores will now be held from February to November and will run concurrently with the second-tier Copa Sudamerica.

Both tournaments will have a one-off final at a neutral venue, straying from their previous home-and-away format to decide the tournament.

The changes, which bring the Copa Libertadores in line with the UEFA Champions League, were ratified at a meeting between member federations in the Colombian capital Bogota.

"We [aim] to improve the quality of our tournaments and generate more profit so that we can reinvest that money in the development of football at all levels and close the economic gap that is destroying our ability to compete," Conmebol said. Endit