The South American football confederation, CONMEBOL, stressed on Tuesday that it does not wish to modify its qualification format for the 2026 World Cup.
It prefers to maintain the existing system, under which each of the 10 Conmebol nations plays a home and away match against the nine others, giving a total of 18 matches per team.
A decision to that effect was adopted unanimously by South American football’s governing body at a meeting on Monday in Santiago, Chile. It will now be transmitted to the international football federation, FIFA.
FIFA, on the other hand, wishes to impose reforms. At the 2026 World Cup, to be organised jointly by Canada, the United States and Mexico, the number of teams participating in the tournament will increase from 32 to 48.
For the 2022 edition, which will take place at the end of the year in Qatar, all South American teams were in a single pool, and the top four qualified directly, while the fifth took part in an intercontinental playoff.
For 2026, six teams will qualify directly, with the seventh competing in a play-off.
However, under the new qualification format that FIFA wants, two groups of five teams each would be created. The teams in each group would play two matches – one home, one away – against each of the five teams that make up the other group, giving a total of 10 matches per squad.
The first two teams of each group would qualify directly for the World Cup.
The third- and fourth-placed team in each group would face off, with the winners obtaining a direct ticket. The losers would play for a place in the play-off.
Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay have qualified directly for the World Cup in Qatar, which takes place from 20 November to 18 December.
Peru, which took part in the intercontinental play-off, lost on penalties to Australia.
