The South American Youth Football Championship, also known as South American U-20 Championship (; ), branded as CONMEBOL Sub 20, is a South American

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tournament organized by the

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 ...

for South American national teams of men under age of 20. This tournament also serves as qualification for the

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

, and from 2007 to 2015, also for the

Summer Olympic Games The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The 1896 Summer Olympics, inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, ...

History

The first South American Youth Championship was hosted by

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 ...

from 22 March to 13 April 1954. Initially played as an under-19 tournament, it became an under-20 event from 1977. Brazil has won the tournament on the most occasions (13 times).

Format

All matches take place in the host country, and all ten U-20 national football teams of

compete in every edition (if none of the associations withdraw). They are separated in two groups of five, and each team plays four matches in a pure round-robin stage. The three top competitors advance to a single final group of six, wherein each team plays five matches. The results in this last pure round-robin stage determines the champion and the South American qualification to the next

. Unlike most international tournaments, in South American Youth Championships there is neither final match nor third place match nor

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

stages.

Results

Performances by countries

Top goalscorers

Source: RSSSF.

Men's U-20 World Cup Performances of Qualified South American teams

;Legend *1st – Champions *2nd – Runners-up *3rd – Third place *4th – Fourth place *QF – Quarterfinals *R2 – Round 2 *R1 – Round 1 * – Hosts *Q – Qualified for upcoming tournament

References

External links

* {{International football Under-20 association football competitions CONMEBOL competitions for national teams Football qualification for the Summer Olympics Recurring sporting events established in 1954 1954 establishments in South America South American youth sports competitions