2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL)
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 8 October 2015 – 10 October 2017 |
| Teams | 10 (from 1 confederation) |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 60 |
| Goals scored | 173 (2.88 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
 Edinson Cavani (8 goals)
|
The South American section of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification will act as qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Russia, for national teams which are members of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL). A total of 4.5 slots (4 direct slots and 1 inter-confederation play-off slot) in the final tournament are available for CONMEBOL teams.
The qualification structure is the same as the previous five tournaments. The ten teams will play in a league of home-and-away round-robin matches. The top four teams will qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and the fifth-placed team will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.
Unlike previous qualifying tournaments where the fixtures were pre-determined, the fixtures were determined by draw, which was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (UTC+3), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
For scheduling reasons, Argentina and Brazil were automatically positioned as Teams 4 and 5 respectively to ensure that no team has to play both of them on any double matchday. The remaining eight teams will be drawn into one of the remaining eight positions from Teams 1 to 10 (except 4 and 5).
All 10 national teams from CONMEBOL entered qualification.
There will be a total of 18 matchdays: four in 2015, eight in 2016, and six in 2017.
The inter-confederation play-offs are scheduled to be played between 6–14 November 2017.
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