Conmebol, in a statement published on its website, announced that the South American teams will apply to the International Football Association (FIFA) for the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup to be played in the current all-against-all format, as has been running since 1998.
“The Council of Conmebol, at its meeting in Santiago de Chile, unanimously decided to request FIFA to keep the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup in their current format with two-legged and all-against-all mode. After Qatar, the World Cup will have 48 participating teams,” he stressed.
In this way, the supreme authority in South American football would do everything possible for the qualifiers to keep the current format and not go to one where groups would be formed, which could not benefit the Peruvian team.
As is known, Conmebol will have 6.5 places from the qualification process for the 2026 World Cup – which will be held in Mexico, Canada and the United States. With that in mind, only three countries will be completely banned from the World Cup event.
What is the position of Peru among the Conmebol States?
The latest FIFA rankings places Peru as the fifth best-positioned Conmebol team, behind only Brazil (1), Argentina (3), Uruguay (13) and Colombia (17). In addition to Ecuador, the Bicolor also overtakes Chile (29), Paraguay (50), Venezuela (56) and Bolivia (86).