CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), 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 and it is one of

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

'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 ...

, Paraguay. CONMEBOL is responsible for the organization and governance of South American football's major international tournaments. With 10 member football 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 called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

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

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup (FIFA CWC) is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global sports governing body, governing body. The compe ...

s. Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have won two Olympic gold medals each. 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 a region, 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 meteoro ...

and

geographic Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

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 resignation ...

(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 Jesurún (Colombia), Laureano González (Venezuela) and Arturo Salah (Chile).

History

In 1916, the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition is all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a book pr ...

of the "Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol" (South-American Football Championship), later known as the "

Copa América The CONMEBOL Copa América (; known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship), often simply called the Copa America, is the top men's quadrennial association football, football tournament contested among list of men's national ass ...

", was contested in Argentina to commemorate the centenary of the

Argentine Declaration of Independence The Independence of the Argentine Republic (or ''La Independencia de Argentina'' in spanish) was declared on July 9, 1816, by the Congress of Tucumán. In reality, the congressmen who were assembled in Tucumán declared the independence ...

. The four participating associations of that tournament gathered in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

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, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of 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 Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

. The first Constitutional Congress on 15 December of that same year, which took place in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, ratified the decision. Over the years, the other football associations in South America joined, with the last being

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

in 1952.

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

and the French

overseas department The overseas departments and regions of France (, ; DROM) are the five departments and regions of the French Republic which are located outside European France (also known as " metropolitan France"). These overseas entities have exactly the s ...

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

, 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 as members of the "Caribbean" rimlands. 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 considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

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

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...

) * (

) * * (

) * (

) * *

Competitions

CONMEBOL competitions

; National teams: *

CONMEBOL Men Pre-Olympic Tournament The CONMEBOL Preolímpico () 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, teams from North and Cen ...

* South American Under-20 Football Championship * South American Under-17 Football Championship * 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-America ...

South American Under-20 Women's Football Championship The South American Under-20 Women's Football Championship (Spanish: Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-20 Femenino), officially the CONMEBOL Sub20 Femenina, is an international association football competition for women's national teams. It is held every ...

* South American Under-17 Women's Football Championship * Copa América de Futsal * South American Futsal League * South American Under-20 Futsal Championship * South American Under-17 Futsal Championship * Copa América Femenina de Futsal * South American Under-20 Women's Futsal Championship * Copa América of Beach Soccer * South American Beach Soccer League * South American Under-20 Beach Soccer Championship *

Superclásico de las Américas The Superclassic of the Americas (, ), was an annual Exhibition game, friendly association football, football match between the national teams of Argentina national football team, Argentina and Brazil national football team, Brazil. Established ...

; Clubs: *

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...

Recopa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Recopa Sudamericana (), also known as Recopa Sudamericana or CONMEBOL Recopa, and simply as Recopa (, ; "Winners' Cup"), is an annual international club Association football, football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1988. It ...

Copa Libertadores Femenina The CONMEBOL Libertadores Femenina, commonly known as "Copa Libertadores Femenina" ( Portuguese: ''Copa/Taça Libertadores Feminina''), is an annual international women's association football club competition in South America. It is organized by th ...

* Copa Libertadores de Futsal * Copa Libertadores Femenina de Futsal * Copa Libertadores de Fútbol Playa *

U-20 Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Under-20 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 Sudamericana, Supercopa Libertadores João Havelange, Supercopa João Havelange or simply Supercopa, was a football club competition contested annually b ...

Copa CONMEBOL The Copa CONMEBOL () 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 contest, similar to the ...

South American Championship of Champions The South American Championship of Champions (, ) was a association football, football competition played in Santiago, Chile in 1948 and the first continental-wide clubs football tournament in South America. Hosted and organized by Chilean club Col ...

* Copa Ganadores de Copa * Copa de Oro *

Copa Mercosur The Copa Mercosur (, , "Mercosur Cup") was a Association football, 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 ...

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 includin ...

Copa Master de Supercopa The Copa Master de Supercopa was a football competition contested by clubs that had previously won the Supercopa Libertadores. It was organized by CONMEBOL and only played in 1992 and 1995. A third edition was scheduled to be played in 1998 but ...

* Copa Master de CONMEBOL * FIFA Futsal World Cup qualifiers * FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers ; Intercontinental: *

CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions The Finalissima or officially CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions, formerly known as European/South American Nations Cup and also called Artemio Franchi Cup, is an intercontinental football match organised by CONMEBOL and UEFA and contested by th ...

* UEFA–CONMEBOL Club Challenge *

Women's Finalissima The Women's Finalissima is an intercontinental women's football super cup organised by CONMEBOL and UEFA and contested by the winners of the Copa América Femenina and UEFA Women's Championship. Played as a quadrennial one-off match, the fi ...

* Futsal Finalissima *

Under-20 Intercontinental Cup The Under-20 Intercontinental Cup (, ) is an annual one-off football match organised by CONMEBOL and UEFA and contested by the winners of the South American and European youth club competitions, the U-20 Copa Libertadores and UEFA Youth League, ...

; Defunct: * J.League Cup / Copa Sudamericana Championship * Intercontinental Champions' Supercup *

Copa Interamericana The Copa Interamericana () was an international association football, football competition endorsed by CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean) and CONMEBOL (South America). Established in 1969, it was discontinued in 1998 after CONCACAF ...

* Copa Iberoamericana (set to return in 2024) * Intercontinental Cup

International

The main competition for men's national teams is the

, which started in 1916. The Copa America is the only continental competition in which teams from a completely 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 variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

, there is the Copa América de Futsal 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

was first held in 1960 and the

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

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 The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

between the Copa Libertadores and the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

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:18/08/2024 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 Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

" 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:"

" 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:30/04/2023 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:BRA from:30/04/2023 till:end shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:ARG

Team of the year

Other rankings

Clubs

Football Database rankings

Last updated: 1 January 2025

IFFHS

Last updated on: 1 January 2025 �

/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) * R3 – Round 3 (2026–present: knockout round of 16) * R2 – Round 2 (1974–1978: second group stage, top 8; 1982: second group stage, top 12; 1986–2022: knockout round of 16; 2026–present: knockout round of 32) * 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 * – Qualified but withdrew * – 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

Men's tournament

Women's tournament

Copa América

Copa América Femenina

FIFA U-20 World Cup

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup

FIFA U-17 World Cup

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 Eugenio Hermes Figueredo Aguerre (born 10 March 1932 in Santa Lucía, Uruguay) is a Uruguayan and American association football executive and former footballer. In May 2015, he was banned by FIFA Ethics Committee. Biography As a footballer, ...

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, conducting, conductor, music theorist, educator, journalist, and founder and director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra. He was influence ...

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 Sport in Luque