The South American Qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup begin: Dates and how many qualify.

Canada, the United States and Mexico will be the venues for the 2026 World Cup in which a new format will be launched by playing with 48 selected instead of 32. In total, 104 games will be played in the World Cup in North America, which will have a record of qualifiers, and unlike previous editions, FIFA awarded six direct places and one playoff for Conmebol .

Until the 2022 Qatar World Cup , Conmebol received four direct places and one for the playoffs. With the new modality announced by FIFA to increase the number of participating teams in the 2026 World Cup to 48 teams, South America now has six direct berths and one for the playoffs.

Format of the Conmebol South American Qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.

The ten selected South Americans will compete to qualify for the 2026 World Cup by playing against each other, "all against all" both at home and away. In other words, there will be two rounds of nine matches each, in which each country will receive its nine opponents from the region at home, thus each team will play a total of 18 qualifying matches.

The first six teams in the qualifying table of the Conmebol Qualifiers will directly access the 2026 FIFA World Cup . As in all FIFA tournaments, three points are awarded for a win, one point for a tie and zero points for a loss in each game.

The team that finishes in seventh position in the table will play the playoffs to qualify for the 2026 World Cup against a team from another confederation

The South American Qualifiers begin with the double date that takes place between September 7 and 12, 2023 and end between October 9 and 14, 2025 with days 17 and 18.