TheSouth American Football Confederation (Spanish:Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol;[a]Portuguese:Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol),[b] known by the acronymCONMEBOL (/ˈkɒnmɪbɒl/KON-mib-ol) orCSF, is the continentalgoverning body of football in South America[c] and it is one ofFIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located inLuque, 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.[3]
TheWorld Cup qualifiers of CONMEBOL have been described as the "toughest qualifiers in the world" for their simpleround-robin system, entry of some of the top national teams in the world, leveling of the weaker national teams,climate andgeographic conditions, strong home stands and passionate supporters.[4][5]
Juan Ángel Napout (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'sbribery case involving FIFA.Wilmar Valdez (Uruguay) was interim president until 26 January 2016 whenAlejandro Domínguez (Paraguay) was elected president. The vice presidents areRamón Jesurún (Colombia), Laureano González (Venezuela) andArturo Salah (Chile).
In 1916, thefirst 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 theArgentine Declaration of Independence. The four participating associations of that tournament gathered inBuenos 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 UruguayanHéctor Rivadavia Gómez, but approved by the football associations ofArgentina,Brazil,Chile andUruguay. The first Constitutional Congress on 15 December of that same year, which took place inMontevideo, ratified the decision.
Over the years, the other football associations in South America joined, with the last beingVenezuela in 1952.Guyana,Suriname and the Frenchoverseas department ofFrench 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 theConfederation 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).
There are sovereign states or dependencies inSouth America which are not affiliated with CONMEBOL but are members of other confederations or do not have affiliation with any other confederations at all.
As Falkland Islanders are British citizens born overseas, they are entitled to declare for any of the fourHome nations. They may choose to represent Argentina as well.
The main competition for men's national teams is theCopa 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[10] or CONCACAF[11] to participate in the Copa America. Japan and Qatar were invited to participate in the 2019 edition of the Copa America.[12] CONMEBOL also runs national competitions atUnder-20,Under-17 andUnder-15 levels. For women's national teams, CONMEBOL operates theCopa América Femenina for senior national sides, as well asUnder-20 andUnder-17 championships.
CONMEBOL also runs the two main club competitions in South America: theCopa Libertadores was first held in 1960 and theCopa Sudamericana was launched by CONMEBOL in 2002 as an indirect successor to theSupercopa Libertadores (begun in 1988). A third competition, theCopa CONMEBOL, started in 1992 and was abolished in 1999. In women's football, CONMEBOL also conducts theCopa Libertadores Femenina for club teams. The competition was first held in 2009.
TheRecopa 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.
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.[19] Those swept up in the operation include former CONMEBOL presidentsEugenio Figueredo andNicolás Léoz and several football federations presidents such asCarlos Chávez andSergio Jadue. On 3 December 2015, the CONMEBOL PresidentJuan Ángel Napout was also arrested.[20]
^There was no Third Place match in 1930; The United States and Yugoslavia lost in the semi-finals. FIFA recognizes theUnited States as the third-placed team andYugoslavia as the fourth-placed team using the overall records of the teams in the1930 FIFA World Cup.
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