2023 South American U-17 Championship

The 2023 South American U-17 Championship was the 19th edition of the South American U-17 Championship (Spanish: CONMEBOL Sudamericano Sub-17), the biennial international youth football championship organized by CONMEBOL for the men's under-17 national teams of South America. It was held in Ecuador between 30 March and 23 April 2023. This was the first U-17 championship in four years due to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing CONMEBOL to cancel the tournament in 2021.
Like previous editions, the tournament served as the CONMEBOL qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 World Cup. The top four teams of the tournament qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia as the CONMEBOL representatives. Brazil won their thirteenth South American U-17 title after finishing first in the final stage's group and a spot at the World Cup. They were joined by the other top four teams in Ecuador, Argentina and Venezuela.
All ten CONMEBOL member national teams were eligible to enter the tournament.
Ecuador was originally chosen to host the 2021 South American U-17 Championship. Although the tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ecuador maintained its right to hold the South American U-17 Championship in 2023. It was the fourth time that Ecuador hosted the tournament, having previously done so in 1988 (under-16 edition), 2007 and 2011.
Guayaquil and Quito were selected as host cities. Originally, Guayaquil would host the first stage matches in two venues, the Christian Benítez Betancourt and George Capwell stadiums. Subsequently, the Estadio Monumental Isidro Romero Carbo was added as a venue to host four matches of Group A. The matches in the final stage were played in Quito in two venues, the Olímpico Atahualpa and Rodrigo Paz Delgado stadiums.
On 23 February 2023, CONMEBOL announced a total of 11 referees and 22 assistant referees appointed for the tournament, included a UEFA refereeing team which was later confirmed to be Italian. For the first time, a UEFA refereeing team participated in the South American U-17 Championship as part of the UEFA–CONMEBOL memorandum of understanding signed in February 2020, which included a referee exchange programme.
Chilean referee Nicolás Gamboa was replaced by his fellow countryman Felipe González.
Players born between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2010 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team could register a maximum of 23 and a minimum of 19 players, including at least 3 goalkeepers (Regulations Articles 46 and 49).
The draw of the tournament was held on 24 February 2023, 12:00 PYT (UTC−3), at the CONMEBOL headquarters in Luque, Paraguay. The ten teams were drawn into two groups of five. The hosts Ecuador and defending champions Argentina 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 results in the 2019 South American U-17 Championship (shown in brackets).
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.
The draw resulted in the following groups:
The top three teams in each group will advance to the final stage.
In 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):
All match times are in ECT (UTC−5), as listed by CONMEBOL.
On 1 April, CONMEBOL announced that matches played on Matchday 3 and 4 in Group A would be moved to the Estadio Monumental Isidro Romero Carbo due to the poor conditions of the field at the Estadio Christian Benítez Betancourt, the original venue for these matches.
If teams finish level on points, the final rankings will 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 ECT (UTC−5), as listed by CONMEBOL.
There were 93 goals scored in 35 matches, for an average of 2.66 goals per match.
5 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
1 own goal
The following four teams from CONMEBOL qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia.