HistoryData
sports2022

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL) — 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifying (CONMEBOL)

January 1, 2022

CONMEBOL's round-robin qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar allocated 4.5 slots to South American nations across an 18-month process.

Quick Facts

Year
2022
Category
sports

Key Facts

Slots available
4 direct + 1 inter-confederation play-off
Process start date
8 October 2020
Process end date
29 March 2022
First goal scorer
Luis Suárez (Uruguay)
Times Suárez opened qualifying scoring
3 (2010, 2014, 2022)
Consecutive Uruguayan first-goal openers
4 (including Martín Cáceres in 2018)

By the Numbers

4
Slots available
8
Process start date
29
Process end date
3
Times Suárez opened qualifying scoring

Location

Multiple (South America)

Cause → Event → Consequence

Cause

Following FIFA's allocation of qualifying berths to continental confederations for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, CONMEBOL was granted 4.5 places for its ten member nations, necessitating a structured qualifying competition among South American football federations.

Event

All ten CONMEBOL member nations competed in a home-and-away round-robin format between 8 October 2020 and 29 March 2022. Uruguay's Luis Suárez scored the first goal of the qualifying round, marking the third time he had done so personally and the fourth consecutive qualifying cycle opened by a Uruguayan player.

Consequence

The qualification process determined which South American nations secured direct berths and which entered the inter-confederation play-off for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, shaping the continent's representation at the tournament.

Timeline Context

Timeline around 202220222019202020212023202420252022 FIFA World Cup — 22nd FIFA World Cup2022 Winter Olympics — 24th edition of Winter Olympics, in Beijing, ChinaEurovision Song Contest 2022 — 66th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest2021 Africa Cup of Nations — 2021 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations2022 Kazakh unrest — series of protests in Kazakhstan that began on 2 January 2022 after an LPG price increaseMahsa Amini protests — Iranian protest movement in 2022–20232022 Formula One World Championship — 73rd running of the Formula One World ChampionshipDeaths in 2022 — list of notable deaths in 20222022-fifa-world-cup-qualification-conmebol-2022-fifa-wor-2022