The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ...

of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Suriname and

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. ...

) and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in

Luque Luque () is a city in Central Department of Paraguay, part of the Gran Asunción metropolitan area. Both 1635 and 1750 have been recorded as dates of its founding. It was temporarily the capital of Paraguay in 1868 during the Paraguayan War b ...

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

, near

Asunción Asunción (, , , Guarani: Paraguay) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay. The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay o ...

. CONMEBOL is responsible for the organization and governance of South American football's major international tournaments. With 10 member soccer associations, it has the fewest members of all the confederations in FIFA. CONMEBOL national teams have won ten

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

s (Brazil five, Argentina three and Uruguay two) and CONMEBOL clubs have won 22 Intercontinental Cups and four FIFA Club World Cups. Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have won two

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

gold medals each. It is considered one of the strongest confederations in the world. The World Cup qualifiers of CONMEBOL have been described as the "toughest qualifiers in the world" for their simple round-robin system, entry of some of the top national teams in the world, leveling of the weaker national teams,

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

conditions,

geographic Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

conditions, strong home stands and passionate supporters.

Juan Ángel Napout Juan Ángel Napout Barreto (born 13 May 1958) is a Paraguayan football executive and businessman. He was head of the Paraguayan Football Association from 2007 to 2014. Napout served as President of CONMEBOL from August 2014 until his resignatio ...

(Paraguay) was the president of CONMEBOL until 3 December 2015 when he was arrested in a raid in Switzerland as part of the U.S. Justice Department's bribery case involving FIFA.

Wilmar Valdez Wilmar Valdez (born 10 July 1965) is a Uruguayan football executive who served as interim President of CONMEBOL between 11 December 2015 and 26 January 2016. He took up the position after the resignation of Juan Ángel Napout which was related t ...

(Uruguay) was interim president until 26 January 2016 when Alejandro Domínguez (Paraguay) was elected president. The Vice presidents are Ramón Jesurum (Colombia), Laureano González (Venezuela) and

Arturo Salah Arturo Salah Cassani (born 4 December 1949) is a Chilean former footballer and manager. From January 2016 until 2019 he was the president of Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional. He studied civil engineering at the Pontifical Catholic ...

(Chile).

History

In 1916, the first edition of the "Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol" (South-American Football Championship), now known as the " Copa América", was contested in Argentina to commemorate the centenary of the

Argentine Declaration of Independence What today is commonly referred as the Independence of Argentina was declared on July 9, 1816, by the Congress of Tucumán. In reality, the congressmen who were assembled in Tucumán declared the independence of the United Provinces of Sou ...

. The four participating associations of that tournament gathered together in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

in order to officially create a governing body to facilitate the organization of the tournament. Thus, CONMEBOL was founded on 9 July 1916 under the initiative of Uruguayan Héctor Rivadavia Gómez, but approved by the football associations of

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

. The first Constitutional Congress on 15 December of that same year, which took place in Montevideo, ratified the decision. Over the years, with the last being

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

in 1952. Guyana, Suriname and the French overseas department of

, while geographically in South America, are not part of CONMEBOL. Consisting of a former British territory, a former Dutch territory and a French territory, they are part of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), mainly due to historical, cultural and sporting reasons. With ten member nations, CONMEBOL is the smallest and the only fully continental land-based FIFA confederation (no insular countries or associates from different continents).

Leadership

Executive committee

Past presidents

;Notes

Members

CONMEBOL orthographic projection Mapa CONMEBOL

There are sovereign states or dependencies in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

which are not affiliated with CONMEBOL but are members of other confederations or do not have affiliation with any other confederations at all. * Guyana (

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch language, Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CON ...

) * Suriname (

) *

(

) *

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouze ...

Competitions

CONMEBOL competitions

National teams: * Copa América *

CONMEBOL Men Pre-Olympic Tournament The CONMEBOL Preolímpico ( en, Pre-Olympic Tournament) is an international association football event in the South America region organized by CONMEBOL. It is the qualification tournament for the football tournament at the Olympic Games. In 1960, ...

* South American Under-20 Football Championship *

South American Under-17 Football Championship The South American U-17 Championship (; ) is a football competition held every two years for South American under-17 teams. The tournament was born in 1985 out of a need for a classification tournament for the newly created FIFA U-16 World Cup (now ...

* South American Under-15 Football Championship *

Copa América Femenina The Copa América Femenina (''Copa América Feminina'' in Portuguese; previously the ''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol Femenino'' (''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol Feminino''), usually shortened to ''Sudamericano Femenino'' (''Sul-Americano ...

South American Under-20 Women's Football Championship The South American Under-20 Women's Football Championship (Spanish: Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-20 Femenino) is an international association football competition for women's national teams. It is held every two years for South American players unde ...

South American Under-17 Women's Football Championship The South American Under-17 Women's Football Championship (Spanish: Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-17 Femenino) is an international women's association football competition held every two years for South American under-17 women teams and serves as a q ...

Copa América de Futsal The CONMEBOL Copa América de Futsal is the main national futsal competition of the CONMEBOL nations organized by the FIFA. It was first held in 1964 and was organized by Asociación Mundial de Futsal (AMF) as "Sudamericano". The tournament was a ...

* FIFA Futsal World Cup qualifiers *

South American Futsal League The CONMEBOL Futsal Evolution League, named natively in Spanish as the ''CONMEBOL Liga Evolución Futsal'' and formerly named as ''South American Futsal League'', is a continental league competition for South American men's national futsal teams. ...

South American Under-20 Futsal Championship The Sudamericano de Futsal Sub-20 (South American Under-20 Futsal Championship), branded as CONMEBOL Sub20 Futsal, is the U-20 version of Copa América de Futsal. Champions by year Medal Count References * source: http://www.futsalplanet.co ...

South American Under-17 Futsal Championship The Sudamericano de Futsal Sub-17 (South American Under-17 Futsal Championship), also known as CONMEBOL Sub17 Futsal, is the U-17 version of Copa América de Futsal. The second edition held in 2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clo ...

Copa América Femenina de Futsal The Copa América Femenina de Futsal, also known as the Sudamericano de Futsal Femenino (South American Women's Futsal Championship), is the women's version of Copa América de Futsal. Results Medal summary References * https://web.archive.o ...

South American Under-20 Women's Futsal Championship The South American Under-20 Women's Futsal Championship (Spanish: Campeonato Sudamericano de Futsal Femenino Sub-20; Portuguese: Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futsal Feminino) is the U-20 version of Copa América Femenina de Futsal The Copa América ...

* Copa América de Beach Soccer * FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers *

South American Beach Soccer League The CONMEBOL South American Beach Soccer League, named natively in Spanish as the ''CONMEBOL Liga Sudamericana de Fútbol Playa'', is a continental league competition for South American men's national beach soccer teams. The competition is orga ...

South American Under-20 Beach Soccer Championship The CONMEBOL South American Under-20 Beach Soccer Championship (named natively in Spanish as the ''Sudamericano Sub-20 Futbol Playa'') is a biennial international youth beach soccer tournament contested between the national teams of men aged unde ...

* Superclásico de las Américas Clubs: * Copa Libertadores * Copa Sudamericana * Recopa Sudamericana *

Copa Libertadores Femenina The CONMEBOL Libertadores Femenina, named as "Copa Libertadores Femenina" ( pt, Copa Libertadores Feminina or Taça Libertadores Feminina) is an annual international women's association football club competition in South America. It is organized by ...

Copa Libertadores de Futsal The Copa Libertadores de Clubes de Futsal ( en, South American Club Futsal Championship, pt, Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol de Salão) is an international futsal competition disputed between the best clubs of South America. Since 2002, the t ...

Copa Libertadores de Beach Soccer The CONMEBOL Libertadores Fútbol Playa is an annual continental beach soccer club competition, organized by the governing body for football in South America, CONMEBOL, founded in 2016. Since 2017, the tournament is contested between the top-lev ...

U-20 Copa Libertadores The Under-20 CONMEBOL Libertadores (Portuguese and Spanish: CONMEBOL Libertadores Sub-20) is the international association football club competition for teams that play in CONMEBOL leagues. It was created by Manuel Burga Seoane and the Peruvian ...

Defunct *

Supercopa Libertadores The Supercopa Libertadores (English: ''Libertadores Supercup''), also known as the Supercopa Libertadores João Havelange, Supercopa João Havelange or simply Supercopa, was a football club competition contested annually between 1988 and 1997 by t ...

Copa CONMEBOL The Copa CONMEBOL ( en, CONMEBOL Cup) was an annual football cup competition organized by CONMEBOL between 1992 and 1999 for South American football clubs. During its time of existence, it was a very prestigious South American club football contes ...

South American Championship of Champions The South American Championship of Champions ( es, Campeonato Sudamericano de Campeones, pt, Campeonato Sul-Americano de Campeões) was a football competition played in Santiago, Chile in 1948 and the first continental-wide football tournament in ...

Copa Ganadores de Copa The Copa Ganadores de Copa, also known as Recopa Sudamericana de Clubes, was a South American football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. Its first edition was held in 1970 and was won by Bolivian club Mariscal Santa Cruz. The second edition was ...

* Copa de Oro *

Copa Mercosur The Copa Mercosur (, pt, Copa Mercosul , "Mercosur Cup") was a football competition played from 1998 to 2001 by the traditional top clubs from Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile. The competition was created by CONMEBOL to generate TV m ...

Copa Merconorte The Copa Merconorte () 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 in ...

* Copa Master de Supercopa *

Copa Master de CONMEBOL The Copa Masters CONMEBOL ( en, CONMEBOL Masters Cup, pt, Copa Master da Conmebol or Supercopa Conmebol) was a football club competition contested by the 4 past winners of the Copa CONMEBOL at the time. The cup is one of the many inter-South Ameri ...

Inter Continental: * CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions *

Women's Finalissima The Women's Finalissima is a future official super cup football match organised by CONMEBOL and UEFA and contested by the winners of the Copa América Femenina and UEFA Women's Championship. Organised as a quadrennial one-off match, it is a w ...

Futsal Finalissima The Futsal Finalissima ( es, Finalissima de Futsal) is a quadrennial futsal competition organised by CONMEBOL and UEFA. The tournament is contested by the top two teams of the South American and European futsal championships for men's national ...

Under-20 Intercontinental Cup The Under-20 Intercontinental Cup ( es, Sub-20 Intercontinental, pt, Intercontinental de Sub-20) is a football match organised by CONMEBOL and UEFA. The match is contested by the winners of the South American and European youth club competitions ...

Defunct * J.League Cup / Copa Sudamericana Championship *

Intercontinental Champions' Supercup The Intercontinental Champions' Supercup, commonly referred to as the Intercontinental Supercup or Recopa Intercontinental, was a football competition endorsed by UEFA and CONMEBOL, contested by the past winners of the Intercontinental Cup. Th ...

Copa Interamericana The Copa Interamericana ( en, Interamerican Cup) was an annual club football competition contested between a representative from North America (CONCACAF) and South America (CONMEBOL). Established in 1969, it was discontinued in 1998 after CONCACA ...

Copa Iberoamericana The Copa Iberoamericana ( en, Ibero-American Cup) or Copa Iberia was a one-off international football competition. It was created to face the champions of the Copa de Oro Nicolás Leoz and the Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de ...

* Intercontinental Cup

International

The main competition for men's national teams is the Copa América, which started in 1916. The Copa America is the only continental competition in which teams from a totally different continent and confederation can be invited to participate. CONMEBOL usually selects and invites a couple of teams from the AFC or CONCACAF to participate in the Copa America. Japan and Qatar were invited to participate in the 2019 edition of the Copa America. CONMEBOL also runs national competitions at Under-20, Under-17 and Under-15 levels. For women's national teams, CONMEBOL operates the

for senior national sides, as well as Under-20 and Under-17 championships. In

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is ...

, there is the

and Campeonato Sudamericano de Futsal Sub-20. The Campeonato Sudamericano Femenino de Futsal is the women's equivalent to the men's tournament.

Club

CONMEBOL also runs the two main club competitions in South America: the Copa Libertadores was first held in 1960 and the Copa Sudamericana was launched by CONMEBOL in 2002 as an indirect successor to the

(begun in 1988). A third competition, the

, started in 1992 and was abolished in 1999. In women's football, CONMEBOL also conducts the

for club teams. The competition was first held in 2009. The Recopa Sudamericana is an annual match between the past year's winners of the Copa Libertadores and the winners of the Copa Sudamericana (previously the winners of the Supercopa Libertadores) and came into being in 1989. The Intercontinental Cup was jointly organized with

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

between the Copa Libertadores and the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

winners.

Current title holders

FIFA World Rankings

Overview

Historical leaders

;Men's

ImageSize = width:150 height:700 PlotArea = left:40 right:0 bottom:5 top:10 DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:08/08/1993 till:24/10/2019 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1994 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical format:yyyy Colors = id:ARG value:skyblue id:COL value:orange id:BRA value:yellow id:URU value:blue PlotData= bar:Leaders width:25 mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:S from:08/08/1993 till:23/09/1993 shift:(20,-5) text:"

" color:ARG from:23/09/1993 till:21/11/2001 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:BRA from:21/11/2001 till:17/04/2002 shift:(20,-5) text:"

" color:ARG from:17/04/2002 till:14/03/2007 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:BRA from:14/03/2007 till:16/05/2007 shift:(20,-5) text:"

" color:ARG from:16/05/2007 till:19/09/2007 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:BRA from:19/09/2007 till:02/07/2008 shift:(20,-5) text:"

" color:ARG from:02/07/2008 till:09/03/2011 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:BRA from:09/03/2011 till:13/04/2011 shift:(20,-5) text:"

" color:ARG from:13/04/2011 till:24/08/2011 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:BRA from:24/08/2011 till:03/09/2012 shift:(20,-6) text:"

" color:URU from:03/09/2012 till:04/07/2013 shift:(20,-5) text:"

" color:ARG from:04/07/2013 till:12/09/2013 shift:(20,-5) text:" Colombia" color:COL from:12/09/2013 till:10/04/2014 shift:(20,-5) text:"

" color:ARG from:10/04/2014 till:08/05/2014 shift:(20,-5) text:" Colombia" color:COL from:08/05/2014 till:17/07/2014 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:BRA from:17/07/2014 till:09/03/2017 shift:(20,-5) text:"

" color:ARG from:09/03/2017 till:end shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:BRA

Team of the year

Other rankings

Clubs

Football Database rankings

Last updated: 9 January 2022

IFFHS

Last updated on: 12 March 2019 �

/small>

Beach soccer national teams

Men's update: 31 January 2022.

Major tournament records

;Legend * – Champion * – Runner-up * – Third placeThere was no Third Place match in 1930; The United States and Yugoslavia lost in the semi-finals. FIFA recognizes th
United States
as the third-placed team an

as the fourth-placed team using the overall records of the teams in th

* – Fourth place * QF – Quarter-finals (1934–1938, 1954–1970, and 1986–present: knockout round of 8) * R2 – Round 2 (1974–1978, second group stage, top 8; 1982: second group stage, top 12; 1986–2022: knockout round of 16) * R1 – Round 1 (1930, 1950–1970 and 1986–present: group stage; 1934–1938: knockout round of 16; 1974–1982: first group stage) * ''Q'' – Qualified for upcoming tournament * – Did not qualify * – Did not enter / Withdrew / Banned * – Hosts For each tournament, the flag of the host country and the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.

FIFA World Cup

FIFA Women's World Cup

Olympic Games For Men

Olympic Games For Women

Copa América

Copa América Femenina

FIFA U-20 World Cup

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup

FIFA U-17 World Cup

** Note 1: Original hosts Peru were stripped of the right to host the 2019 event in February 2019.

FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup

FIFA Futsal World Cup

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

Former tournaments

FIFA Confederations Cup

Corruption

On 27 May 2015, several CONMEBOL leaders were arrested in Zürich, Switzerland by Swiss police and indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice on charges of corruption, money laundering, and racketeering. Those swept up in the operation include former CONMEBOL presidents Eugenio Figueredo and

Nicolás Léoz Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

and several football federations presidents such as

Carlos Chávez Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez (13 June 1899 – 2 August 1978) was a Mexican composer, conductor, music theorist, educator, journalist, and founder and director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra. He was influenced by nativ ...

and

Sergio Jadue Sergio Elías Jadue Jadue ( La Calera, 26 April 1979) is the former president of the National Association of Professional Football of Chile (ANFP) and second vice president of the Conmebol. He pleaded guilty on the 2015 FIFA corruption case. In ...

. On 3 December 2015, the CONMEBOL President

was also arrested.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Conmebol Sports organisations of Paraguay Sports organizations established in 1916 Central Department FIFA confederations 1916 establishments in South America