CONMEBOL

History

In 1916, the first edition of the "Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol" (South-American Football Championship), later known as the "Copa América", was contested in Argentina to commemorate the centenary of the Argentine Declaration of Independence. The four participating associations of that tournament gathered in Buenos Aires 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, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. The first Constitutional Congress on 15 December of that same year, which took place in Montevideo, ratified the decision.

Over the years, the other football associations in South America joined, with the last being Venezuela in 1952. Guyana, Suriname and the French overseas department of French Guiana, 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

There are sovereign states or dependencies in South America which are not affiliated with CONMEBOL but are members of other confederations or do not have affiliation with any other confederations at all.

• (CONCACAF)
• (CONCACAF)
• (CONCACAF)
• (CONCACAF)
• (CONCACAF)
• (CONCACAF)
• (CONCACAF)
• (CONCACAF)
• South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
• As Falkland Islanders are British citizens born overseas, they are entitled to declare for any of the four Home nations. They may choose to represent Argentina as well.

Competitions

CONMEBOL competitions

; National teams:

• Copa América
• CONMEBOL Men Pre-Olympic Tournament
• South American Under-20 Football Championship
• South American Under-17 Football Championship
• South American Under-15 Football Championship
• Copa América Femenina
• CONMEBOL Women's Nations League
• South American Under-20 Women's Football Championship
• 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

; Clubs:

• Copa Libertadores
• Copa Sudamericana
• Recopa Sudamericana
• Copa Libertadores Femenina
• Copa Libertadores de Futsal
• Copa Libertadores Femenina de Futsal
• Copa Libertadores de Fútbol Playa
• U-20 Copa Libertadores

; Defunct:

• Supercopa Libertadores
• Copa CONMEBOL
• South American Championship of Champions
• Copa Ganadores de Copa
• Copa de Oro
• Copa Mercosur
• Copa Merconorte
• Copa Master de Supercopa
• Copa Master de CONMEBOL
• FIFA Futsal World Cup qualifiers
• FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers

; Intercontinental:

• CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions
• UEFA–CONMEBOL Club Challenge
• Women's Finalissima
• Futsal Finalissima
• Under-20 Intercontinental Cup

; Defunct:

• J.League Cup / Copa Sudamericana Championship
• Intercontinental Champions' Supercup
• Copa Interamericana
• Copa Iberoamericana (set to return in 2024)
• 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 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 Copa América Femenina for senior national sides, as well as Under-20 and Under-17 championships.

In futsal, 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 Copa Libertadores was first held in 1960 and the Copa Sudamericana was launched by CONMEBOL in 2002 as an indirect successor to the Supercopa Libertadores (begun in 1988). A third competition, the Copa CONMEBOL, started in 1992 and was abolished in 1999. In women's football, CONMEBOL also conducts the Copa Libertadores Femenina 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 between the Copa Libertadores and the UEFA Champions League 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:"Argentina" color:ARG from:23/09/1993 till:21/11/2001 shift:(20,-3) text:"Brazil" color:BRA from:21/11/2001 till:17/04/2002 shift:(20,-5) text:"Argentina" color:ARG from:17/04/2002 till:14/03/2007 shift:(20,-3) text:"Brazil" color:BRA from:14/03/2007 till:16/05/2007 shift:(20,-5) text:"Argentina" color:ARG from:16/05/2007 till:19/09/2007 shift:(20,-3) text:"Brazil" color:BRA from:19/09/2007 till:02/07/2008 shift:(20,-5) text:"Argentina" color:ARG from:02/07/2008 till:09/03/2011 shift:(20,-3) text:"Brazil" color:BRA from:09/03/2011 till:13/04/2011 shift:(20,-5) text:"Argentina" color:ARG from:13/04/2011 till:24/08/2011 shift:(20,-3) text:"Brazil" color:BRA from:24/08/2011 till:03/09/2012 shift:(20,-6) text:"Uruguay" color:URU from:03/09/2012 till:04/07/2013 shift:(20,-5) text:"Argentina" 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:"Argentina" 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:"Brazil" color:BRA from:17/07/2014 till:09/03/2017 shift:(20,-5) text:"Argentina" color:ARG from:09/03/2017 till:30/04/2023 shift:(20,-3) text:"Brazil" color:BRA from:30/04/2023 till:end shift:(20,-3) text:"Argentina" color:ARG

Team of the year

Other rankings

Clubs

Football Database rankings

Last updated: 11 January 2026

IFFHS

Last updated on: 13 December 2025 – https://www.iffhs.com/posts/4801

Beach soccer national teams

Men's update: 1 October 2025.

Major tournament records

;Legend

• **** – Champion
• **** – Runner-up
• **** – Third place
• **** – 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

Main article: South American nations at the FIFA World Cup

FIFA Women's World Cup

Main article: FIFA Women's World Cup records and statistics

Olympic Games

Men's tournament

Women's tournament

Copa América

Main article: Copa América records and statistics

Copa América Femenina

FIFA U-20 World Cup

Main article: FIFA U-20 World Cup records and statistics

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup

FIFA U-17 World Cup

Main article: FIFA U-17 World Cup records and statistics

FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup

FIFA Futsal World Cup

Main article: FIFA Futsal World Cup#Comprehensive team results by tournament

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

Main article: FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup records and statistics

Former tournaments

FIFA Confederations Cup

Main article: FIFA Confederations Cup records and statistics

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 and several football federations presidents such as Carlos Chávez and Sergio Jadue. On 3 December 2015, the CONMEBOL President Juan Ángel Napout was also arrested.

Notes

References

References

1. [https://www.conmebol.com/es/laconmebol/el-comite-ejecutivo El Comité Ejecutivo] on Conmebol (updated, 14 September 2021)
2. [https://www.conmebol.com/es/conmebol-nombra-jose-manuel-astigarraga-como-nuevo-secretario-general CONMEBOL nombra a José Manuel Astigarraga como nuevo Secretario General], 1 November 2016
3. "What is CONMEBOL (South America)?".
4. (11 October 2011). "La eliminatoria más difícil del mundo". ESPN Desportes.
5. Vickery, Tim. (18 October 2011). "South American WCQ toughest in world". ESPN.
6. "South American Championship 1916".
7. "CONMEBOL". FIFA.
8. "The Executive Committee". CONMEBOL.
9. (14 August 2018). "Colombia será sede del Campeonato Sudamericano Preolímpico Sub-23 del 2020 {{!}} CONMEBOL".
10. (19 August 2015). "Las competiciones oficiales de la Conmebol Las competiciones".
11. "The AFC".
12. (17 November 2020). "Concacaf".
13. "Copa América Brasil 2019 | CONMEBOL".
14. "World Football / Soccer Clubs Ranking". FootballDatabase.
15. [https://beachsoccer.com/rankings#3398 Rankings – Men's National Teams], at Beach Soccer Worldwide
16. There was no Third Place match in 1930; The United States and Yugoslavia lost in the semi-finals. FIFA recognizes the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070610045703/http://www.fifa.com/associations/association=usa/countryInfo.html United States] as the third-placed team and [https://web.archive.org/web/20070611131717/http://www.fifa.com/associations/association=srb/countryInfo.html Yugoslavia] as the fourth-placed team using the overall records of the teams in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070603185201/http://fifa.com/worldcup/archive/edition=1/index.html 1930 FIFA World Cup].
17. (22 February 2019). "Update on the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2019".
18. (27 May 2015). "FIFA Officials Face Corruption Charges in US". The New York Times.
19. (4 December 2015). "Arrest of soccer bosses creates power vacuum at CONMEBOL".