The South American section of the

2026 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification will decide the 45 teams that will join hosts Canada men's national soccer team, Canada, Mexico national football team, Mexico, and the United States men's national soccer team, United States at the 2026 FIFA ...

will act as qualifiers for the

2026 FIFA World Cup The 2026 FIFA World Cup, marketed as FIFA World Cup 26, will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's Association football, soccer championship contested by the List of men's n ...

to be held in Canada, the United States, and Mexico for national teams who are members of

CONMEBOL CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Parag ...

. A total of 6 direct slots in the final tournament and 1 inter-confederation play-off slot are available for CONMEBOL teams. CONMEBOL was the first confederation to begin its qualification process for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with Paraguay–Peru being the first match of the global qualification process.

Format

On 22 August 2022, CONMEBOL sent a request to FIFA asking to keep the current qualification format that has been used since the 1998 World Cup qualification in South America. This was confirmed, with the first games of the qualifiers tentatively to be played in March or June 2023. On 27 February 2023, CONMEBOL president Alejandro Domínguez announced that the qualifiers would start in September 2023, which was ratified by the CONMEBOL Council in the run-up to the 73rd

FIFA Congress The FIFA Congress is the supreme legislative body of the International Association Football Federation (French: Fédération Internationale de Football Association), commonly known by the acronym FIFA . FIFA is the international governing body of ...

held on 16 March in

Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali is a relativ ...

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

. The qualification structure remains the same as in previous editions (despite the increase of slots available to CONMEBOL teams), wherein each team plays each other team twice in a home-and-away round-robin format. Prior to the commencement of the qualification competition,

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

were deducted 3 points for the use of a document containing false information for

Byron Castillo Byron David Castillo Segura (born 25 June 1995) is an Ecuadorian professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Ecuadorian Serie A club Barcelona SC and the Ecuador national team. Club career Early career Castillo began his career with ...

in the previous World Cup qualification cycle.

Schedule

The qualifying matches are being held in a total of 18 matchdays on dates that fall within the

FIFA International Match Calendar The FIFA International Match Calendar (sometimes abbreviated as the FIFA Calendar) is an outline agreement between FIFA, the six continental football confederations, the European Club Association, and FIFPro, which sets out which dates can be us ...

. The match schedule is the same that was used in the previous edition of the competition. Six matchdays will be played in 2023, six in 2024 and also six in 2025.

Entrants

All 10 national teams from CONMEBOL entered qualification.

Standings

Matches

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Inter-confederation play-offs

The seventh-placed team will join one team each from AFC,

CAF CAF or caf may refer to: Armed forces *Canadian Armed Forces (Canadian Forces), the Canadian Air Force, Army, and Navy *Canadian Air Force, now the Royal Canadian Air Force *Republic of China Air Force, the air force of the Republic of China (Tai ...

, and OFC and two from

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 ...

in the inter-confederation play-offs. The teams will be ranked according to the

FIFA Men's World Ranking The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, first introduced in December 1992. The men's teams of the member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their gam ...

, with the four lowest-ranked teams playing in two matches. The winners will meet the two highest-ranked teams in another set of matches, with the winners of these matches qualifying for the World Cup in United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Qualified teams

2026 World Cup CONMEBOL Qualification map

The following teams from CONMEBOL qualified for the final tournament.

Goalscorers

Discipline

A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following infractions: * Receiving a red card (red card suspensions may be extended for serious infractions) * Receiving two yellow cards in two different matches (yellow card suspensions are carried forward to further qualification rounds, but not the finals or any other future international matches) The following suspensions have been or will be served during qualification:

Notes

References

{{CONMEBOL World Cup

Conmebol CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Parag ...

2023 in South American football 2024 in South American football 2025 in South American football FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL)