| Tourney Name: | South American Championship |
| Year: | 1949 |
| Country: | Brazil |
| Dates: | 3 April – 11 May |
| Num Teams: | 8 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Venues: | 5 |
| Cities: | 4 |
| Champion: | Brazil |
| Champion-Flagvar: | 1889 |
| Count: | 3 |
| Second: | Paraguay |
| Second-Flagvar: | 1842 |
| Third: | Peru |
| Third-Flagvar: | 1884 |
| Fourth: | Bolivia |
| Matches: | 29 |
| Goals: | 135 |
| Top Scorer: | Jair (9 goals) |
| Prevseason: | 1947 |
| Nextseason: | 1953 |
The 1949 South American Championship was the 21st edition of the Copa América, the main national team football competition in South America. It was held in, and won by, Brazil. Paraguay finished as runner-up while Argentina withdrew from the tournament.
This achievement ended a 27-year streak without official titles for the Brazilians. The last one had been in the 1922 South American Championship, also played on Brazilian soil. Jair Rosa Pinto from Brazil was the top scorer of the tournament, with nine goals.
For a complete list of participating squads, see: 1949 South American Championship squads
| Rio de Janeiro | Sao Paulo | Santos | Belo Horizonte | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Estádio General Severiano | Estádio São Januário | Estádio do Pacaembu | Estádio Vila Belmiro | Estádio Sete de Setembro | |
| Capacity: 30,000 | Capacity: 25,000 | Capacity: 71,281 | Capacity: 16,798 | Capacity: 30,000 | |
| width=165 | Team | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=left | 7 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 39 | 7 | +32 | 12 | |||||||||
| align=left | 7 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 21 | 6 | +15 | 12 | |||||||||
| align=left | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 20 | 13 | +7 | 10 | |||||||||
| align=left | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 13 | 24 | −11 | 8 | |||||||||
| align=left | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 14 | −4 | 5 | |||||||||
| align=left | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 14 | 20 | −6 | 5 | |||||||||
| align=left | 7 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 21 | −14 | 2 | |||||||||
| align=left | 7 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 23 | −19 | 2 |
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See main article: 1949 South American Championship Final. A playoff match was played between Brazil and Paraguay to determine the champion.
9 goals
7 goals
5 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
Own goals