2025 South American U-20 Championship Explained

Tourney Name:South American U-20 Championship
Year:2025
Other Titles:CONMEBOL Sudamericano Sub-20 Perú 2025
Country:Peru
Dates:23 January – 16 February
Num Teams:10
Confederations:1
Venues:4
Cities:1
Prevseason:2023
Nextseason:2027

The 2025 South American U-20 Championship will be the 31st edition of the South American U-20 Championship (es|CONMEBOL Sudamericano Sub-20, pt|CONMEBOL Sul-Americano Sub-20), the biennial international youth football championship organised by CONMEBOL for the men's under-20 national teams of South America. It will be held in Peru from 23 January to 16 February 2025.[1] [2]

Same as previous editions, the tournament will act as the CONMEBOL qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The top four teams will qualify for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile as the CONMEBOL representatives, besides Chile who automatically qualify as host (if Chile were among the top four teams, the fifth-placed team would also qualify for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup).[3]

Brazil are the defending champions.

Host nation and venues

Peru was announced as host country for the tournament by the CONMEBOL President Alejandro Domínguez during a CONMEBOL Council meeting held on 10 April 2024, with Arequipa as host city.[1] [4] The Peruvian Football Federation had submitted to CONMEBOL in March 2024 the bid to organize this competition.[5]

This will be the third time that Peru hosts the tournament, having previously done so in 1975 and 2011.[6] Arequipa will once again be the host city as in 2011 when it shared the organization with Tacna and Moquegua.[7]

With three venues required as a minimum by CONMEBOL,[8] four possible venues were initially considered: Estadio Monumental UNSA, Estadio Melgar, Estadio La Tomilla and Estadio Municipal de Sachaca, with the latter three needing considerable improvements to host the matches.[9] [10]

Teams

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

Teamdata-sortype="number"AppearancePrevious best performance
29th (5 times, most recent 2015)
26th (2 times, most recent 1983)
(holders) 30th (12 times, most recent 2023)
31st (1 time, 1975)
29th (3 times, most recent 2013)
26th (1 time, 2019)
29th (1 time, 1971)
(hosts) 30th (5 times, most recent 1975)
30th (8 times, most recent 2017)
27th (2 times, most recent 2017)

Squads

Each team could register a maximum of 23 and a minimum of 19 players, including at least 3 goalkeepers. Players born between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2009 (ages 16 to 20) were eligible to compete in the tournament (Regulations Articles 47 and 50).[3]

Draw

The draw of the tournament was held on 29 October 2024, 12:00 PYT (UTC−3), at the CONMEBOL headquarters in Luque, Paraguay.[11] The ten involved teams will be drawn into two groups of five. The hosts Peru 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 final position in the 2023 South American U-20 Championship (shown in brackets).[11]

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.[12]

The draw resulted in the following groups:[13]

width=50%
+ Group A
width=150Team
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
width=50%
+ Group B
width=150Team
B1
B2
B3
B4
B5

First stage

The top three teams in each group advanced to the final stage.

TiebreakersIn the first 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 would be applied in the following order (Regulations Article 21):[3]
  1. 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;
  2. Goal difference in all group matches;
  3. Goals scored in all group matches;
  4. Fewest red cards received;
  5. Fewest yellow cards received;
  6. Drawing of lots.

All match times are in COT (UTC−5), as listed by CONMEBOL.

Group A

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Group B

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Final stage

If teams finished level on points, the final rankings would be determined according to the same criteria as the first stage, taking into account only matches in the final stage.

All match times are in PET (UTC−5), as listed by CONMEBOL.

Note: Final round schedule may be modified by the Organizing Committee.

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Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup

The following five teams from CONMEBOL qualify for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup, including Chile which qualified as hosts.

TeamQualified ondata-sort-type="number" Previous appearances in FIFA U-20 World Cup1
[14] 6 (1987, 1995, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2013)
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: ¡Confirmado! Arequipa será sede del Sudamericano Sub 20 Masculino 2025. Confirmed! Arequipa will host the South American U-20 Men's Championship 2025. Radio Programas del Perú. Erick. Chávez. 10 April 2024. es.
  2. Web site: Conmebol confirmó las fechas de todos los torneos que organizará en el 2025. Conmebol confirmed the dates of all the tournaments it will organise in 2025. Montevideo Portal. 18 September 2024. es.
  3. Web site: Reglamento CONMEBOL Sub20 2025. CONMEBOL. 16 October 2024. es.
  4. Web site: Conmebol: Arequipa será sede del próximo Sudamericano Sub 20 de fútbol masculino. Conmebol: Arequipa will host the next South American U-20 Men's Championship 2025. El Comercio. 10 April 2024. es.
  5. Web site: ¡Arequipa será sede del CONMEBOL Sub-20 Masculino 2025!. Arequipa will host the CONMEBOL U-20 Men's 2025!. Peruvian Football Federation. 10 April 2024. es. https://web.archive.org/web/20240410200104/https://fpf.org.pe/arequipa-sera-sede-del-conmebol-sub-20-masculino-2025/. 10 April 2024.
  6. Web site: Conmebol hizo oficial la sede del Sudamericano Sub-20 del 2025. Conmebol made official the venue for the South American Under-20 Championship 2025. Antena 2. Johan. Castro. 10 April 2024. es.
  7. Web site: Arequipa nuevamente sede de un Sudamericano de fútbol. Arequipa once again hosts a South American football tournament. El Pueblo. 11 April 2024. es.
  8. Web site: Sudamericano Sub-20: Representantes de la FPF y el IPD inspeccionaron el estadio Melgar de Arequipa. South American U-20 Championship: Representatives of the FPF and the IPD inspected the Estadio Melgar in Arequipa. Correo. 16 July 2024. es.
  9. PeruTribuna. 1778153730501742745. ¡LOS 4 ESTADIOS PARA EL SUDAMERICANO DE AREQUIPA!. Tribuna Deportiva. 10 April 2024. es.
  10. Web site: Arequipa perdería sede del Sudamericano Sub 20: la preocupante advertencia de ‘Chemo’ Del Solar para el cambio de escenario. Arequipa could lose venue for the South American U-20 Championship: 'Chemo' Del Solar's worrisome warning for the change of venue. Infobae. Raúl. Bazán. 2 July 2024. es.
  11. Web site: Sorteo de Grupos para la CONMEBOL Sub20 2025. CONMEBOL. 21 October 2024.
  12. Web site: SORTEO DE GRUPOS | CONMEBOL SUB20 2025. CONMEBOL. YouTube. 29 October 2024. es.
  13. Web site: Los grupos para la CONMEBOL Sub20 2025. CONMEBOL. 29 October 2024. es.
  14. Web site: FIFA Council appoints Chile and Poland as hosts of FIFA youth competitions. FIFA. 17 December 2023.