The Copa Chile () is the primary knockout football cup competition in Chile, organized by the Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional (ANFP). First contested in 1958, it is one of the oldest national cup tournaments in South America, and its precursor, the Campeonato de Apertura, dates back to 1933. The competition has not been held in several seasons over its history, most notably between 2001 and 2007, and was cancelled outright in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it returned permanently in 2008 with an expanded, open-entry format.
The tournament is open to every level of the Chilean football league system, from the professional Primera División, Primera B and Segunda División down to amateur clubs affiliated with the ANFA. Because it is played as a straight knockout, lower-division sides have occasionally upset top-flight clubs to win the title, as Deportes La Serena, Luis Cruz, Unión San Felipe and Municipal Iquique have all done. The champion earns qualification to the Copa Libertadores (previously the Copa Sudamericana) and a place in the Supercopa de Chile against the reigning national league champion.
Colo-Colo is the tournament's most successful club, with 14 titles, well ahead of Universidad de Chile (6) and Universidad Católica (4). Only Colo-Colo (1981, 1989, 1990, 1996) and Universidad de Chile (2000) have completed a league-and-cup double in the same season, and Colo-Colo alone has won three consecutive editions, from 1988 to 1990. Lizardo Garrido and Raúl Ormeño, both of Colo-Colo, share the record for the most Copa Chile titles won by a player, with six apiece. The current holder of the trophy is Huachipato, which won its first title in the 2025 edition.
History
Origins
The Copa Chile's precursor was the Campeonato de Apertura, a short local cup tournament that opened the football season, generally taking up much of the first half of the year. During those years the league did not have a large number of clubs in the Primera División, so once the Campeonato de Apertura finished, the national championship began. This competition was played between 1933 and 1950, sometimes in a single-elimination format and other times as a single round-robin group. Between 1951 and 1957 there was no cup competition, official or otherwise, alongside the national top-flight championship; clubs relied only on a reserve-team tournament to keep fringe players active. The Campeonato de Apertura was not played again and, statistically, has no direct link to the current cup, since the two are considered separate competitions.
Founding and early years (1958–1962) The first official Copa Chile was established in 1958. A mixed-elimination tournament involving clubs from the Primera and Segunda División was part of the plan to modernize Chilean football ahead of hosting the 1962 FIFA World Cup, which required various sporting reforms. The cup was played midweek alongside the closing rounds of that year's national championship, as planned. The competition did not initially draw much public interest, and several clubs fielded largely reserve line-ups, but attendance grew in the closing rounds. Colo-Colo won the inaugural edition, drawing 2–2 in the final against Universidad Católica at the Estadio Nacional; the tie was broken by goal average, with Colo-Colo's 3.00 (27 goals for, 9 against) edging out Universidad Católica's 2.63 (21 for, 8 against). Luis Hernán Álvarez and Mario Moreno scored Colo-Colo's goals in the final.
In the 1959 edition, Santiago Wanderers beat Deportes La Serena by a wide margin in the final at the Estadio Nacional; it was the caturros second official title of the year, following their 1958 league championship, both under Argentine coach José Pérez. In 1960, played as a preseason tournament known as the Copa Preparación, Deportes La Serena avenged their earlier defeat by routing Santiago Wanderers in the final at the Estadio La Portada, their only official title. Following the Green Cross tragedy, the 1961 edition was renamed the Copa Chile Green Cross in commemoration; groups were dropped in favor of straight knockout rounds, and Santiago Wanderers won their second cup, beating Universidad Católica over two legs. In 1962, a World Cup year, the tournament reverted to the Copa Preparación name; the surprise winner was Luis Cruz Martínez, a modest club from Curicó coached by Paraguayan Ovidio Casartelli, which defeated defending Primera División champions Universidad Católica in the final — the first second-division club to win the cup, and the only club to win an official title in its debut professional season.
Hiatus (1963–1973) Between 1963 and 1973 no official domestic cup competition was held in Chilean professional football, either as a preliminary or parallel tournament to the national league.
Return and the 1970s The cup returned in 1974 under its original name, with a new silver trophy that remains in use today. Colo-Colo, which had reached the 1973 Copa Libertadores final the previous year, won the tournament, defeating Santiago Wanderers 3–0 in front of a full Estadio Nacional; Miguel Ángel Gamboa and Luis Araneda (twice) scored the goals. In 1975, played in the traditional two-legged knockout format except for a single-match final, Palestino won its first title with a rout of Lota Schwager, led by Sergio Messen, Alberto Hidalgo, Pedro Pinto and Argentine forward Óscar Fabbiani; Palestino also won the Liguilla Pre-Libertadores that year. The tournament was not held in 1976. Palestino returned to the final in 1977, led by Elías Figueroa, who scored the winner in extra time against Unión Española, which had won the 1977 national title but fell short of a domestic double. The cup was not held again in 1978.
Copa Polla Gol era (1979–1985) From 1979 the competition was rebranded the Copa Polla Gol, sponsored by the state-run football pools operator, and used a new silver trophy of similar size; only top-flight clubs took part, and the winner earned bonus points toward the national championship. Universidad de Chile, coached by Fernando Riera, beat archrival Colo-Colo 2–1 in front of roughly 75,000 spectators to win the 1979 final. In 1980, Deportes Iquique upset Colo-Colo 2–1 in the final, the club's first cup title and the first won by a team from the Tarapacá Region. Colo-Colo won three further Polla Gol titles in 1981 (a 5–1 rout of Audax Italiano featuring two goals from Brazilian Severino Vasconcelos), 1982 (decided by a round-robin mini-league among the last four clubs, which Colo-Colo swept) and 1985 (a narrow win over Palestino, in which forward Carlos Caszely played his farewell season). Universidad Católica won the 1983 edition, also decided by a mini-league; its forward Jorge Aravena finished the tournament with 23 goals, still the most in Copa Chile history. Everton won its only title in 1984, routing Universidad Católica 3–0 in the final.
Late 1980s The 1986 edition, the Copa Polla LAN Chile, introduced a two-group, 10-club format in which the bottom club of each group was relegated to the Primera B — the first time the cup carried a relegation penalty. Cobreloa won the only Copa Chile final to be decided by a third match, beating Fernández Vial 3–0 in the decider at the Estadio Regional de Antofagasta. In 1987, Cobresal won its only title, beating Colo-Colo 2–0 with goals from Iván Zamorano and Sergio Salgado. The 1988–1990 period saw Colo-Colo win an unprecedented three consecutive titles: the 1988 Copa Digeder (with participation expanded to include second- and third-tier clubs), the 1989 Copa Coca-Cola Digeder (with goalkeeper Daniel Morón, defender Lizardo Garrido and midfielders Jaime Pizarro and Marcelo Barticciotto among the squad's key figures), and the 1990 Copa Digeder, won in extra time against Universidad Católica with a goal from Javier Margas in the 109th minute; the squad that won this third straight title formed the core of the side that won the 1991 Copa Libertadores the following year under Mirko Jozić. A separate Copa Invierno (Winter Cup) was also played in 1989 during the mid-season break for the 1989 Copa América and 1990 FIFA World Cup qualifiers; Unión Española won that tournament, beating Huachipato 2–0 in the final, its first title since 1977.
1990s In 1991, both the original name and silver trophy returned. Universidad Católica won its second cup, edging Cobreloa 1–0 through a lone goal from José Percudani. Unión Española, coached by Nelson Acosta, won its first Copa Chile in 1992 before a then-record crowd of about 77,000 at the Estadio Nacional, with Marcelo Vega scoring all three of his side's goals in a 3–1 win over Colo-Colo; the club retained the title in 1993, defeating Cobreloa 3–1. Colo-Colo won a ninth title in 1994, beating O'Higgins on penalties after a 1–1 draw. Universidad Católica claimed a third title in 1995, defeating Cobreloa 4–2 in the first Copa Chile won by coach Manuel Pellegrini; that year's surprise package was Ñublense, then playing in the Primera B, which eliminated defending champion Colo-Colo in the quarterfinals. In 1996 the trophy was renamed in honor of the late former minister Eduardo Simián; Colo-Colo beat second-division side Rangers over two legs to claim a tenth title, a run that included a fiercely contested Superclásico semifinal against Universidad de Chile. The tournament was not held in 1997 because of a change in the national league calendar. Renamed the Copa Apertura and restricted to top-flight clubs, the 1998 edition was won by Universidad de Chile, which beat Audax Italiano over two legs for a second title. The 1999 tournament was not held because of a congested 44-round national league calendar.
2000s The 2000 edition, again called the Copa Apertura, was decided by a dramatic extra-time winner from Clarence Acuña as Universidad de Chile beat Santiago Morning 2–1 for a third title — also making Universidad de Chile the only club, alongside Colo-Colo, to complete a league-and-cup double, having also won the national championship that year. Administrative changes to the national league calendar between 2001 and 2007 excluded the Copa Chile altogether, and it was not held during that period.
In April 2008, under ANFP president Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the cup's return was approved, adopting a European-style knockout format that for the first time included clubs from the Tercera División and the amateur ANFA. From this point, the champion earned a place in the Copa Sudamericana. The 2008–09 edition, the first to start and finish in different calendar years, produced an unlikely finalist in third-tier Deportes Ovalle, which had eliminated Colo-Colo and Huachipato en route to the final; Universidad de Concepción won the match 2–1 for its first official title. In 2009, with the cup switched to a single-match knockout format favoring the lower-division side as host, second-division leaders Unión San Felipe eliminated several top-flight clubs, including Unión Española, Colo-Colo and defending champion Universidad de Concepción, before beating Municipal Iquique 3–0 in the final for its first Copa Chile title.
2010s Renamed the Copa Chile Bicentenario to mark the Bicentennial of Chile, the 2010 edition saw Deportes Iquique beat Deportes Concepción on penalties after a 1–1 draw, its second title 30 years after its first. In 2011, second-division club Deportes Magallanes reached the final for the first time in 73 years, losing to Universidad Católica on penalties after the tie finished level over two legs. The calendar switch to a European-style season pushed the 2012–13 edition into an UEFA Champions League-style format with a group stage; Universidad de Chile beat Universidad Católica 2–1 in an all-university final in Temuco, with Juan Ignacio Duma scoring the winner in the 91st minute, earning Universidad de Chile a fourth title and a place in the 2013 Copa Sudamericana.