Copa Centroamericana

Copa Centroamericana

The official logo (2011–2017)
Founded	February 19, 1991; 33 years ago (February 19, 1991)
Abolished	2017; 7 years ago (2017)
Region	Central America (UNCAF)
Number of teams	7
Last champions	Honduras (4th title)
Most successful team(s)	Costa Rica (8 titles)

The Copa Centroamericana ([ˈkopa sentɾoameɾiˈkana], Spanish for "Central American Cup") was the main association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Unión Centroamericana de Fútbol (UNCAF), the sport's Central American governing body. Held every two years since 1991, in the years before and after the FIFA World Cup tournaments, it was originally called the UNCAF Nations Cup (Spanish: Copa de Naciones de la UNCAF), changing to the latter name in 2011.

The tournament consisted of two stages. In the Group stage of the tournament finals, the seven teams competed in two round-robin groups, one of four teams and the other of three, for points, with the top two teams in each group proceeding. These four teams qualified for the semifinal stage of the final round, where the winners advanced into the final while the losers disputed a third-place match. The fifth-place match was disputed between the third-ranked teams of the group stage. Depending on their performance in the Copa Centroamericana, teams then went on to participate in other competitions, such as the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Copa América.

The 14 Central American Championship tournaments were won by four different national teams: Costa Rica were the most successful national team of the competition with eight victories. Honduras won four titles. Guatemala and Panama won one title each. Costa Rica and Honduras were the only sides in history to win consecutive titles, with the former winning an unprecedented three titles in 2003, 2005 and 2007.

The final tournament was held in 2017, with its place in the fixture schedule being taken by the CONCACAF Nations League.

Due to the success of the Costa Rica national football team at the 1990 FIFA World Cup and the approaching 1994 FIFA World Cup to be hosted in the United States, the CONCACAF Congress in Kingston, Jamaica decided to stage a continental championship itself; the CONCACAF Gold Cup was ratified on August 18, 1990.^[1] Costa Rica were given a bye into the competition due to its first place placing at the 1989 CONCACAF Championship, which also served as a qualification phase for the World Cup hosted by Italy.^[1] However, due to mainly economic reasons, the United States were chosen as the venue for the continental tournament.^[2]

During that same conference, the qualification format for the Central American associations were also decided on.^[1] The final qualification round of the Central American zone had two bids: the United States and Costa Rica.^[2] Costa Rica, now three-time CONCACAF champions and to celebrate their anniversary of the nation's World Cup performance by its team, was named by CONCACAF and UNCAF as the host country of the inaugural UNCAF Nations Cup tournament on February 19, 1991.^[3]

Seven UNCAF members participated on the tourment

•  Belize
•  Costa Rica
•  El Salvador
•  Guatemala
•  Honduras
•  Nicaragua
•  Panama

Year	Host	Final			Third place match
		Champion	Score	Runner-Up	Third Place	Score	Fourth Place
1991	Costa Rica	Costa Rica	RR	Honduras	Guatemala	RR	El Salvador
1993	Honduras	Honduras	RR	Costa Rica	Panama	RR	El Salvador
1995	El Salvador	Honduras	3–0	Guatemala	El Salvador	2–1	Costa Rica
1997	Guatemala	Costa Rica	RR	Guatemala	El Salvador	RR	Honduras
1999	Costa Rica	Costa Rica	RR	Guatemala	Honduras	RR	El Salvador
2001	Honduras	Guatemala	RR	Costa Rica	El Salvador	RR	Panama
2003	Panama	Costa Rica	RR	Guatemala	El Salvador	RR	Honduras
2005	Guatemala	Costa Rica	1–1 7–6 pen.	Honduras	Guatemala	3–0	Panama
2007	El Salvador	Costa Rica	1–1 4–1 pen.	Panama	Guatemala	1–0	El Salvador
2009	Honduras	Panama	0–0 5–3 pen.	Costa Rica	Honduras	1–0	El Salvador
2011	Panama	Honduras	2–1	Costa Rica	Panama	0–0 5–4 pen.	El Salvador
2013	Costa Rica	Costa Rica	1–0	Honduras	El Salvador	1–0	Belize
2014	United States	Costa Rica	2–1	Guatemala	Panama	1–0	El Salvador
2017	Panama	Honduras	RR	Panama	El Salvador	RR	Costa Rica

1. ^ Placings decided on a round-robin basis.

Team	Titles	Runner-up	Third place	Fourth place
Costa Rica	8 (1991*, 1997, 1999*, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2013*, 2014)	4 (1993, 2001, 2009, 2011)	—	2 (1995, 2017)
Honduras	4 (1993*, 1995, 2011, 2017)	3 (1991, 2005, 2013)	2 (1999, 2009)	2 (1997, 2003)
Guatemala	1 (2001)	5 (1995, 1997*, 1999, 2003, 2014)	3 (1991, 2005, 2007)	—
Panama	1 (2009)	2 (2007, 2017*)	3 (1993, 2011*, 2014)	2 (2001, 2005)
El Salvador	—	—	6 (1995*, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2013, 2017)	7 (1991, 1993, 1999, 2007*, 2009, 2011, 2014)
Belize	—	—	—	1 (2013)
Nicaragua	—	—	—	—

* Hosts

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Costa Rica	61	36	16	9	109	38	+71	124
2	Honduras	60	34	12	14	108	49	+59	114
3	Guatemala	51	23	14	14	63	48	+15	83
4	El Salvador	63	22	14	27	62	72	−10	80
5	Panama	52	21	13	18	56	52	+4	76
6	Nicaragua	44	5	5	34	29	111	−82	20
7	Belize	33	1	6	26	20	81	−61	9

• UNCAF's official site for the Copa Centroamericana (in Spanish)
• CONCACAF's official site for the Copa Centroamericana (in English and Spanish)