Women's football
The Copa América Femenina
The Copa América Femenina is the main international competition for South American women's national teams. Held since 1991 and run by CONMEBOL, it is contested by the 10 CONMEBOL member nations. Recent editions have combined a group stage with semi-finals, a third-place match, a fifth-place match, and a final. Brazil has dominated the competition, winning nine of the 10 editions to date including five consecutive titles from 2010 to 2025.
What the Copa América Femenina is
The Copa América Femenina is the championship of South American women's international football.
The Copa América Femenina is the main international competition for the national teams of the South American football confederation (CONMEBOL). It is the women's equivalent of the men's Copa América. The tournament is contested by all 10 CONMEBOL member nations — Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela — with no invited teams from outside the region. The competition is run by CONMEBOL and was historically known as the Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol Femenino before being rebranded.
The tournament was first held in 1991, the same year as the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup. The first edition was hosted by Brazil and featured just three teams. The competition has expanded across the modern era to include all 10 CONMEBOL nations and has usually been held every four years, although its schedule has been more irregular than the men's Copa América. The 2025 edition was held in Ecuador. CONMEBOL has since introduced a separate Women's Nations League for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup qualifying cycle, so future Copa América Femenina scheduling should be checked against official competition announcements.
How the tournament is organised
The Copa América Femenina uses two groups of five teams plus a knockout stage.
In the recent format, the 10 CONMEBOL nations are divided into two groups of five teams. Each team plays the other four teams in its group once, giving each side four group-stage matches. The top two teams from each group advance to the semi-finals, while the two third-placed teams meet in a fifth-place match. The semi-finals, third-place match, fifth-place match, and final are all single-match ties.
The format has varied across the competition's history. Early editions used small round-robin or final-stage formats, and later tournaments used different combinations of group rounds, final rounds, and knockout matches. Recent editions have settled around two groups followed by semi-finals and a final, but the exact final-phase details have not always been identical. The 2025 final between Brazil and Colombia ended 4-4 after extra time, with Brazil winning 5-4 on penalties at the Estadio Rodrigo Paz Delgado in Quito. Marta scored twice for Brazil in the final, including a late extra-time equaliser, in what could prove to be her final Copa América Femenina tournament.
How teams qualify and what they qualify for
All 10 CONMEBOL nations participate automatically, with the competition feeding into multiple other tournaments.
The Copa América Femenina is the only major South American women's national-team tournament, so all 10 CONMEBOL member nations participate automatically in each edition. There is no qualifying competition. The competition historically served as the South American qualifying route for the FIFA Women's World Cup, with the top two or three teams advancing to the World Cup. From 2025 onwards, CONMEBOL introduced a separate Women's Nations League to handle World Cup qualifying, with the Copa América Femenina becoming a standalone continental championship.
The Copa América Femenina also serves as a qualifying route for other major tournaments. In 2025, the two finalists secured places at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic women's football tournament, subject to formal IOC confirmation, while the teams finishing third to fifth qualified for the 2027 Pan American Games. The Copa América Femenina winner also qualifies for the Women's Finalissima, a single-match competition between the South American champion and the European champion. Brazil played in the inaugural Women's Finalissima in 2023 as 2022 Copa América Femenina winners, but England won the match on penalties at Wembley.
The most successful teams
Brazil has dominated the Copa América Femenina across the entire history of the competition.
Brazil
Nine Copa América Femenina titles — every edition except 2006. Brazil has reached the final in every one of the 10 editions held to date, including five consecutive wins from 2010 to 2025. The team's record includes several of the most important players in the history of South American women's football, including Marta, Formiga, Cristiane, and Roseli. Brazilian striker Roseli holds the single-tournament scoring record with 16 goals across six matches in the 1998 edition.
Argentina
One title, won in 2006 when they hosted the tournament. Argentina's 2-0 win over Brazil in the final at the Mar del Plata edition remains the only time Brazil have failed to win the competition. Argentina were Brazil's main historical challenger for much of the tournament's early history and continue to be regular contenders for the podium, with strong club representation from teams such as Boca Juniors, River Plate, and UAI Urquiza in South American women's football.
Colombia
No titles but four runner-up finishes (2010, 2014, 2022, 2025) — more than any other non-winning nation. Colombia have become one of the strongest modern challengers to Brazil, helped by repeated Copa América Femenina final appearances and a run to the quarter-finals of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup — the deepest run by any South American nation other than Brazil. Linda Caicedo, the Real Madrid forward, has been the country's standout modern player.
Chile
Two final appearances (1991 and 2018) but no titles. Chile's strongest era came around 2018, when they reached their second Copa América Femenina final and went on to qualify for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup — their first appearance at the global tournament. That generation, led by players such as Christiane Endler, helped make Chile one of the region's most visible women's national teams during that period.
Marta and the Brazilian dynasty
Marta Vieira da Silva is one of the defining players of the Copa América Femenina's modern era and of women's football more broadly. She has won the competition multiple times across her international career and is the all-time leading scorer at FIFA Women's World Cups with 17 goals. The 2025 final may prove to be her last Copa América Femenina appearance — she scored twice, including the extra-time equaliser that took the final to penalties.
Equity and reform
The 2025 Copa América Femenina drew criticism from players over equity and organisation, including the lack of VAR technology in the group stage, warm-up conditions at venues, and the choice of stadiums. CONMEBOL later confirmed VAR for the final phase, including the fifth-place match, semi-finals, third-place match, and final. The controversy reflected a wider issue, as the tournament has historically received far less commercial investment and media attention than the men's Copa América.
A short history
The Copa América Femenina has been South America's main women's tournament since 1991.
The first Copa América Femenina was held in 1991, hosted by Brazil, with just three participating nations — Brazil, Chile, and Venezuela. Brazil won the inaugural edition ahead of Chile. The competition has grown across the modern era to include all 10 CONMEBOL nations, although participation was uneven in some earlier editions. The 2025 edition was the 10th in the competition's 34-year history — significantly fewer editions than the men's Copa América over the same period.
The 2006 edition stands out as the only non-Brazilian victory in the competition's history. Argentina, hosting the tournament, beat Brazil 2-0 in the final stage to win their only Copa América Femenina title to date. Brazil have responded by winning every subsequent edition, with their 2010-2025 five-in-a-row run being the longest unbroken streak in the competition's history. The 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup in Brazil is expected to provide a major commercial and developmental boost to South American women's football.
What to read next
The natural next steps are the Women's World Cup or the wider women's football umbrella.