| Tourney Name: | South American Youth Championship |
| Year: | 1988 |
| Size: | 250px |
| Country: | Argentina |
| Dates: | 2–22 May |
| Num Teams: | 11 |
| Champion: | BRA |
| Count: | 4 |
| Second: | COL |
| Third: | ARG |
| Fourth: | PAR |
| Prevseason: | 1987 |
| Nextseason: | 1991 |
The South American Youth Championship 1988 was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It also served as qualification for the 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship.
The following teams entered the tournament:
| width=165 | Teams | width=20 | Pld | width=20 | W | width=20 | D | width=20 | L | width=20 | GF | width=20 | GA | width=20 | GD | width=20 | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1 | +9 | 10 | ||||||||||
| 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 6 | +4 | 6 | ||||||||||
| 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 6 | ||||||||||
| 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 7 | –2 | 5 | ||||||||||
| 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 10 | –5 | 3 | ||||||||||
| 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 12 | –8 | 0 |
| width=25% | width=30% | width=15% | width=30% | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 May | 1–1 | ||||||
| 1–0 | |||||||
| 1–0 | |||||||
| 4 May | 2–1 | ||||||
| 2–0 | |||||||
| 2–0 | |||||||
| 6 May | 6–2 | ||||||
| 3–1 | |||||||
| 2–1 | |||||||
| 10 May | 1–0 | ||||||
| 2–1 | |||||||
| 2–0 | |||||||
| 12 May | 2–1 | ||||||
| 2–0 | |||||||
| 3–0 |
| width=165 | Teams | width=20 | Pld | width=20 | W | width=20 | D | width=20 | L | width=20 | GF | width=20 | GA | width=20 | GD | width=20 | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1 | +5 | 7 | ||||||||||
| 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 1 | +10 | 6 | ||||||||||
| 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 11 | –8 | 3 | ||||||||||
| 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | –2 | 2 | ||||||||||
| 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 9 | –5 | 2 |
| width=25% | width=30% | width=15% | width=30% | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 May | 1–1 | ||||||
| 3–0 | |||||||
| 5 May | 2–1 | ||||||
| 1–0 | |||||||
| 9 May | 2–1 | ||||||
| 2–0 | |||||||
| 11 May | 7–0 | ||||||
| 0–0 | |||||||
| 13 May | 3–1 | ||||||
| 1–0 |
| width=165 | Teams | width=20 | Pld | width=20 | W | width=20 | D | width=20 | L | width=20 | GF | width=20 | GA | width=20 | GD | width=20 | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | +2 | 5 | ||||||||||
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | +1 | 3 | ||||||||||
| 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | –1 | 2 | ||||||||||
| 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | –2 | 2 |
| width=25% | width=30% | width=15% | width=30% | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 May | 2–0 | ||||||
| 2–1 | |||||||
| 19 May | 0–0 | ||||||
| 1–0 | |||||||
| 22 May | 2–1 | ||||||
| 1–0 |
The three best performing teams qualified for the 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship.