Flow will play that South American Cup in 2026 and since he is not participating in the Libertadores, he will receive less prize money. And although the differences are not huge in each case, they become large when compared between what the champion of each competition perceives.
Let’s take as a reference what sporting merit Conmebol brought in 2025, The champion (Flamengo) took home $36 million. And since River would have started in Phase 2, another $1,100,000 would have to be added, bringing the total to almost 35 million of the same currency. Instead, that of Sudamericana (Lanús) received 10 million dollars. The difference between one and the other was $26 million at the time.
The gap between the amounts is also smaller at the time of the nominal amounts Entering the group stage as the Sudamericana donated $900,000 while the Libertadores donated $3 millions of US currency, although the percentage is generally a third lower in the second division Conmebol Cup. That means, will receive almost $2,100,000 million less.
And if you count up to the quarterfinals, where River was not with the Libertadores this year, the difference in the same Sudamericana game is $4.5 million. There are almost 7 million dollars against 2,545,000 U$S. In any case, if he were to win the second continental tournament, he would earn almost 12 million dollars and surpass the figure of the quarterfinals of the highest Conmebol competition.
Beyond the economic loss Nothing will change in the transfer market at River. The only difference and advantage in this case is that he will have more time to negotiate since he is in no hurry to play in the playoffs in February. The group phase begins in April. Players are then sought based on the budget with a limit of $20 million and the search begins for the players who were already in the pipeline.
The river was at a crossroads. The wish of entering the Copa Libertadores would only come true if Boca emerged as Clausura champions. And of course no one in Núñez wanted to see their eternal rival make the Olympic rounds.
It was an uncomfortable situation. It happened this way when the other teams (Rosario Central, Argentinos and Lanús) that could give the red team that chance fell behind. But all of that is behind us now. The elimination of Xeneize from Racing gave Marcelo Gallardo’s team a place in the Copa Sudamericana in 2026.
At the end of the day, that’s exactly what River got. The fact is that he had a very poor 2025 in which he did not deserve to qualify for the Libertadores. His last chance was wasted in Avellaneda when he was eliminated with Racing in the round of 16 of the Clausura.
Up to this point it depended on himself, because if he won the four games of the playoffs and became champions, he would go straight into the group stage of the biggest continental tournament. But he lost in the cylinder, was left out and had to rely on others to get into the playoffs, which he also didn’t have access to.
River will therefore have to settle for the Sudamericana, apart from the economic losses in the prize concepts (which are generally shared in half between the club and the team), not only because of the donations from Conmebol but also because of the sponsors.
From a sporting point of view, it is also a setback since he took part in the Libertadores 11 times in a row, which is the goal every year. But beyond this topic, you can also use it as an opportunity to start over and lay the foundation again. In fact, the international harvest in Gallardo’s first cycle began precisely with the Copa Sudamericana, which he won in 2014.
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