The 2018 South American Under-17 Women's Football Championship was the 6th edition of the South American Under-17 Women's Football Championship (Spanish: CONMEBOL Sudamericano Femenino Sub-17), the biennial international youth football championship organised by the CONMEBOL for the women's under-17 national teams of South America. The tournament was held in Argentina between 7–25 March 2018.[1]
The top two teams of the tournament qualified for the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Uruguay as the CONMEBOL representatives, besides Uruguay who qualified automatically as hosts.[2]
Brazil were crowned champions for the third time. Venezuela were the defending champions, but could only finish fourth.
Teams
All ten CONMEBOL member national teams are eligible to enter the tournament.
The draw of the tournament was held on 28 February 2018, 12:00 ART (UTC−3), at the Estadio Aldo Cantoni in San Juan.[4] The ten teams were drawn into two groups of five teams. The hosts Argentina and the defending champions Venezuela were seeded into Groups A and B respectively, while the remaining teams were placed into four "pairing pots" according to their results in the 2016 South American Under-17 Women's Football Championship: Brazil–Paraguay, Colombia–Uruguay, Chile–Ecuador, Peru–Bolivia.[5]
Players born on or after 1 January 2001 are eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team could register a maximum of 22 players (three of whom must be goalkeepers).[6]
First stage
In the first stage, the teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order (Regulations Article 18.1):[6]
The top two teams of each group advance to the final stage.
On 11 March 2018, the scheduled Group A match between Argentina and Ecuador was not played as players from several teams showed symptoms for food poisoning. The scheduled Group B matches on 12 March 2018 were also postponed as a result.[7] The matches were rescheduled by CONMEBOL with the first stage ending on 18 March instead of 16 March, and the final stage starting on 21 March instead of 19 March.[8][9]
In the final stage, the teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order, taking into account only matches in the final stage (Regulations Article 18.2):[6]
Fair play points (first yellow card: minus 1 point; second yellow card / red card: minus 3 points; direct red card: minus 4 points; yellow card and direct red card: minus 5 points);
