CONMEBOL

'CONMEBOL' or 'CSF' ('CON'federación Suda'ME'ricana de Fút'BOL' / 'CON'federação Sula'ME'ricana de Fute'BOL', South American Football Confederation) is the governing body of football in most of South America. Generally, nearly all of the South American nations have had a golden age of football players, but Argentina and Brazil are traditionally the strongest teams of the continent. CONMEBOL teams have been very successful in FIFA World Cups, with traditionally only four places of the 32 available spots, they had won half of them and since several years, 2 of the top 5 teams in the FIFA World Rankings are CONMEBOL members.

Contents

Background

Member countries

Tournaments organized by CONMEBOL

Between nations

Between clubs

Defunct

World Cup qualifiers

Totals (current members)

CONMEBOL presidents

External links

Background

It was founded July 9, 1916, thanks to Uruguayan Héctor Rivadavia Gómez who was the driving force for uniting football around the continent. Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Chile were the founder nations. The confederation was founded during the course of a successful South American football tournament that was taking place in Buenos Aires as part of the commemoration of Argentina's independence centenary [1] (This tournament was retrospectively acknowledged as the first Copa América). Paraguay (1921), Peru (1925), Bolivia (1926), Ecuador (1927), Colombia (1936) and Venezuela (1952) also became members. Today CONMEBOL is part of FIFA and is in charge of all professional football activities in its member countries. The permanent headquarters are located in Luque, Paraguay (near Asunción). The president (until 2006) of the Executive Committee is Dr. Nicolás Leoz.
Even though they are located in South America, Guyana, Suriname and the French département d'outre-mer of French Guiana are ''not'' members of CONMEBOL - for historical, cultural and mainly sporting reasons their national associations are members of CONCACAF.
Among the tournaments conducted by CONMEBOL are the Copa Libertadores de América (analogous to the UEFA Champions League) and the Copa Sudamericana (analogous to the UEFA Cup), both for club teams, and Copa América for men's national teams.

Member countries

★ - national team - first division - association (created in 1893, co-founded CONMEBOL in 1916)

★ - national team - first division - association (created in 1925, joined CONMEBOL in 1926)

★ - national team - first division - association (created in 1914, co-founded CONMEBOL in 1916)

★ - national team - - association (created in 1895, co-founded CONMEBOL in 1916)

★ - national team - first division - association (created in 1924, joined CONMEBOL in 1936)

★ - national team - first division - association (created in 1925, joined CONMEBOL in 1927)

★ - national team - - association (created in 1906, joined CONMEBOL in 1921)

★ - national team - first division - association (created in 1922, joined CONMEBOL in 1925)

★ - national team - first division - association (created in 1899, co-founded CONMEBOL in 1916)

★ - national team - first division - association (created in 1926, joined CONMEBOL in 1952)

Tournaments organized by CONMEBOL

Between nations

★ Copa América [since 1916]

★ South American Youth Championship [since 1954]

★ CONMEBOL Men Pre-Olympic Tournament

★ Sudamericano Femenino [women's championship, since 1991]

★ South American Under 17 Football Championship

★ South American Under 15 Football Championship

Between clubs

★ Copa Toyota Libertadores [since 1960]

★ Copa Nissan Sudamericana [since 2002]

★ Recopa Visa Sudamericana [since 1989]

Defunct

★ Copa Mercosur [1998~2001]

★ Copa Merconorte [1998~2001]

★ Copa CONMEBOL [1992~1999]

★ Supercopa Sudamericana [1988~1997]

World Cup qualifiers

Although CONMEBOL countries represent only a small fraction of the world, their teams have won half of the World Cup tournaments.
This is the list of the teams that participated of each World Cup. For further information on the qualification process and withdrawals, see the (Q) corresponding links (the first world cup of 1930 didn't have any qualification process). Names marked in 'bold' represent occasions when a CONMEBOL member won the tournament.

★ 1930(-) - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, 'Uruguay'

★ 1934(Q) - Argentina, Brazil

★ 1938(Q) - Brazil

★ 1950(Q) - Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, 'Uruguay'

★ 1954(Q) - Brazil, Uruguay

★ 1958(Q) - Argentina, 'Brazil', Paraguay

★ 1962(Q) - Argentina, 'Brazil', Chile, Colombia, Uruguay

★ 1966(Q) - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay

★ 1970(Q) - 'Brazil', Peru, Uruguay

★ 1974(Q) - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay

★ 1978(Q) - 'Argentina', Brazil, Peru

★ 1982(Q) - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru

★ 1986(Q) - 'Argentina', Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay

★ 1990(Q) - Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay

★ 1994(Q) - Argentina, Bolivia, 'Brazil', Colombia

★ 1998(Q) - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay

★ 2002(Q) - Argentina, 'Brazil', Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay

★ 2006(Q) - Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay

★ 2010

Totals (current members)

★ 18:
(won World Cup 5 times)

★ 14:
(won World Cup 2 times)

★ 10:
(won World Cup 2 times)

★ 7:



★ 4:



★ 3:


★ 2:


★ 0:

CONMEBOL presidents

★ Héctor Rivadavia Gómez 1916-1936

★ Luis O. Salesi 1936-1939

★ Luis A. Valenzuela 1939-1955

★ Carlos Dittborn Pinto 1955-1957

★ José Ramos de Freitas 1957-1959

★ Fermín Sorhueta 1959-1961

★ Raúl H. Colombo 1961-1966

★ Teófilo Salinas Fuller 1966-1986

★ Nicolás Leoz 1986-present

External links

★ Conmebol Official Website

★
★ Official English version