CONMEBOL - Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol
CONMEBOL or CSF (Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol, South American Football Confederation) is the governing body of football in most of South America. It was founded by Uruguayan Héctor Rivadavia Gómez. Conmebol teams have won half of all FIFA World Cup tournaments, and two of the top five teams in the FIFA World Rankings are Conmebol members.
It was founded July 9, 1916, thanks to Uruguayan Héctor Rivadavia Gómez who was the driving force for uniting football around the continent. Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Chile were the founder nations. The confederation was founded during the course of a successful South American football tournament that was taking place in Buenos Aires as part of the commemoration of Argentina's independence centenary (This tournament was retrospectively acknowledged as the first Copa América). Paraguay (1921), Peru (1925), Bolivia (1926), Ecuador (1927), Colombia (1936) and Venezuela (1952) also became members. Today Conmebol is part of FIFA and is in charge of all professional football activities in its member countries. The permanent headquarters are located in Luque, Paraguay (near Asunción). The president (until 2006) of the Executive Committee is Dr. Nicolás Leoz.
Even though they are located in South America, Guyana, Suriname and the French département d'outre-mer of French Guiana are not members of Conmebol - for historical, cultural and mainly sporting reasons their national associations are members of CONCACAF.
Among the tournaments conducted by Conmebol are the Copa Libertadores de América (analogous to the UEFA Champions League) and the Copa Sudamericana (analogous to the UEFA Cup), both for club teams, and Copa América for men's national teams.
Related pages
AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, OFC, UEFA