2026 South American U-17 Championship

2026 South American U-17 Championship
CONMEBOL Sudamericano Sub-17 Paraguay 2026
Tournament details
Host country	Paraguay
Dates	3–19 April
Teams	10 (from 1 confederation)
Venues	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Colombia (2nd title)
Runners-up	Argentina
Third place	Brazil
Fourth place	Ecuador
Tournament statistics
Matches played	28
Goals scored	78 (2.79 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Nabil Nacif; Eduardo Pape; José Escorcia; (4 goals each)
	← 2025 2027 →

The 2026 South American U-17 Championship was the 21st edition of the South American U-17 Championship (Spanish: CONMEBOL Sudamericano Sub-17, Portuguese: CONMEBOL Sul-Americano Sub-17), the annual international youth football championship organised by CONMEBOL for the men's under-17 national teams of South America. It was held in Paraguay from 3 to 19 April 2026.^[1]^[2]

As in the previous edition, the tournament served as the CONMEBOL qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 World Cup. The top seven teams qualified for the 2026 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar as the CONMEBOL representatives.

Brazil were the defending champions, but they were eliminated by Colombia in the semi-finals, who went on to defeat Argentina 4–0 in the final for a second title, and a first since 1993.

Host and venues

Paraguay was chosen as the host country for the tournament during the CONMEBOL Council meeting held on 26 February 2026 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.^[3]^[4] Previously, reports indicated that Chile had also requested to host the event, a proposal that ultimately did not succeed.^[5]

This was the fourth time that Paraguay hosted the tournament, having previously done so in 1991, 1997 and 2015.

Teams

All ten CONMEBOL member national teams were eligible to enter the tournament.

Team	Appearance	Previous best performance
Argentina	21st	Champions (4 times, most recent 2019)
Bolivia	21st	Champions (1 time, 1986)
Brazil (holders)	21st	Champions (14 times, most recent 2025)
Chile	21st	Runners-up (3 times, most recent 2019)
Colombia	21st	Champions (1 time, 1993)
Ecuador	20th	Runners-up (1 time, 2023)
Paraguay (hosts)	20th	Runners-up (1 time, 1999)
Peru	21st	Fourth place (1 time, 2007)
Uruguay	21st	Runners-up (3 times, most recent 2011)
Venezuela	21st	Runners-up (1 time, 2013)

Squads

Each team could register a squad of a minimum of 19 and a maximum of 23 players, including at least 3 goalkeepers. Players born between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2011 (ages 15 to 17) were eligible to compete in the tournament (Regulations Articles 47 and 50).

Draw

The draw of the tournament was held on 10 March 2026, 12:00 PYT (UTC−3), at the CONMEBOL headquarters in Luque, Paraguay with the ten teams being drawn into two groups of five.^[6] The hosts Paraguay and defending champions Brazil were seeded into Group A and Group B respectively and assigned to position 1 in their group, while the remaining teams were placed into four "pairing pots" according to their results in the 2025 South American U-17 Championship (shown in brackets).^[6]

Seeded	Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Paraguay (6) (Hosts, assigned to A1) Brazil (1) (Title holders, assigned to B1)	Colombia (2) Venezuela (3)	Chile (4) Argentina (5)	Bolivia (7) Ecuador (8)	Uruguay (9) Peru (10)

From each pot, the first team drawn was placed into Group A and the second team drawn was placed into Group B. In both groups, teams from pot 1 were allocated in position 2, teams from pot 2 in position 3, teams from pot 3 in position 4 and teams from pot 4 in position 5.^[7]

The draw resulted in the following groups:^[8]

Group A
Pos	Team
A1	Paraguay
A2	Colombia
A3	Chile
A4	Ecuador
A5	Uruguay

Group B
Pos	Team
B1	Brazil
B2	Venezuela
B3	Argentina
B4	Bolivia
B5	Peru

Match officials

On 17 March 2026, the CONMEBOL Referee Commission announced a total of ten referees and twenty assistant referees appointed for the tournament.^[9]^[10]^[11]

Andrés Gariano
- Assistants: Carla López and Gisela Bosso
Rodolfo Vera
- Assistants: Richard Orellana and Luis Valdez
Thayslane Costa
- Assistants: Daniela Coutinho and Anne Gomes de Sá
Mathías Riquelme
- Assistants: Wladimir Muñoz and Yasna Moreno
Jairo Mayorga
- Assistants: Roberto Padilla and Iris Calderón

Oswaldo Contreras
- Assistants: Andrés Tola and Mauricio Lozada
David Ojeda
- Assistants: Esteban Testta and Liz Fleitas
Edwin Ordoñez
- Assistants: Coty Carrera and Enrique Pinto
Mathías de Armas
- Assistants: Héctor Bergalo and Mathías Muníz
Yeferzon Miranda
- Assistants: Antoni García and Paolo García

Group stage

The top two teams in each group advanced to the final four, the next two teams advanced to the 5th–8th place play-offs, and the two bottom teams were eliminated.

Tiebreakers

In the group stage, teams were ranked according to points earned (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations Article 20):

Head-to-head result between tied teams;
- Points in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
- Goal difference in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
- Goals scored in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Fewest red cards received;
Fewest yellow cards received;
Drawing of lots.

All match times are local times, PYT (UTC−3), as listed by CONMEBOL.^[12]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Ecuador	4	3	1	0	7	3	+4	10	Final four and 2026 FIFA U-17 World Cup
2	Colombia	4	2	1	1	3	2	+1	7	Final four and 2026 FIFA U-17 World Cup
3	Uruguay	4	1	2	1	5	4	+1	5	5th–8th places
4	Chile	4	1	1	2	3	5	−2	4	5th–8th places
5	Paraguay (H)	4	0	1	3	2	6	−4	1

Source:
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

3 April 2026