The South American Youth Football Championship, also known as U-20 South American Championship and es, Torneo Juventudes de América, "Campeonato Sudamericano Sub 20" or pt, Juventude da América (English: "America's Youth") is a South American

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

tournament organized by the

CONMEBOL The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental governing body of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Surina ...

for South American national teams of men under age of 20. This tournament also serves as qualification for the

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 whe ...

History

The first South American Youth Championship was hosted by

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 1954. Initially played as an under-19 tournament, it became an under-20 event from 1977. Brazil has won the tournament on the most occasions (11 times).

Format

All matches take place in the host country, and all ten U-20 national football teams of

compete in every edition (if none of the associations withdraw). They are separated in two groups of five, and each team plays four matches in a pure round-robin stage. The three top competitors advance to a single final group of six, wherein each team plays five matches. The results in this last pure round-robin stage determines the champion and the South American qualification to the next

. Unlike most international tournaments, in South American Youth Championships there is neither final match nor third place match nor

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving strikin ...

stages.

Results

Performances by countries

Top goalscorers

Source: RSSSF.

Men's U-20 World Cup Qualifiers

;Legend *1st – Champions *2nd – Runners-up *3rd – Third place *4th – Fourth place *QF – Quarterfinals *R2 – Round 2 *R1 – Round 1 * – Hosts *q – Qualified for upcoming tournament

References

External links

* {{International football Under-20 association football CONMEBOL competitions Football qualification for the Summer Olympics Recurring sporting events established in 1954 1954 establishments in South America South American youth sports competitions