Copa Merconorte

{{infobox football tournament

| name = Copa Merconorte

| image = Logo da Copa Merconorte.png

| imagesize = 180

| alt =

| caption =

| organiser = CONMEBOL

| founded = 1998

| abolished = {{Start date and age|2001}}

| region = South America
North America

| number of teams = 16

| qualifier for =

| related comps = Copa Mercosur

| domestic cup =

| confed cup =

| current champions =

| most successful club = {{flagicon|COL}} Atl. Nacional
(2 titles)

| broadcasters =

| motto =

| website =

| current =

| American = yes

}}

The Copa Merconorte ({{IPA|es|ˈkopa meɾkoˈnoɾte}}) was an international football competition organized by CONMEBOL from 1998 to 2001 by clubs from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela and starting in 2000 clubs from the CONCACAF confederation were invited including Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States. The competition ran alongside the Copa Mercosur—based on the actual Mercosur economic pact between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.{{cite web|last=Stokkermans|first=Karel|title=Copa Merconorte|url=https://www.rsssf.org/sacups/merconorte.html |website=The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation |access-date=20 June 2013}}

Teams did not directly qualify for this competition. Instead, the aim was to generate profits through the television contracts by inviting the most marketable clubs from each country.{{cite web|last=Stokkermans|first=Karel|title=South America – "Other Copas"|url=https://www.rsssf.org/sacups/samisc.html|website=The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation|access-date=20 June 2013|archive-date=7 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130807191558/http://www.rsssf.com/sacups/samisc.html|url-status=live}} Therefore, participation was based on invitation of individual clubs.

The competition—along with the Copa Mercosur—was discontinued following the conclusion of 2001. A football competition to be called the Copa Pan-Americana would replace these two competitions for the 2002 season featuring clubs from both CONMEBOL and CONCACAF. The competition was postponed, with plans to be played in 2003. Instead, a CONMEBOL competition was founded dubbed as the Copa Sudamericana in 2002. The Copa Pan-Americana was never organized in the immediate future and leaving the Sudamericana as the successor of the Copa Merconorte and Copa Mercosur.{{cite web|last=Gonzalez|first=Miguel|title=Copa Pan-Americana 2003|url=https://www.rsssf.org/sacups/panamcup02.html |website=The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation |access-date=20 June 2013}}

All four editions were won by a Colombian club. Atlético Nacional won it on two occasions (1998 and 2000). All the finalists in the first three editions were Colombian. In the fourth edition, Emelec became the first and only non-Colombian club to reach the finals of the Copa Merconorte.