CONMEBOL announce 2022 World Cup Qualifiers will begin in 2020 | OneFootball

Ahead of Thursday night’s draw for the 2019 Copa América, CONMEBOL provided an important update regarding World Cup Qualifiers.

The South American Football Confederation announced that qualification for the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar will begin in early 2020.

There will be four doubleheader dates in March, September, October, and November 2020, while the final ten matches will occur in 2021.

In recent years, CONMEBOL WCQs had begun in the months of October or November three years before the tournament started and finished the November prior to the World Cup.

The changes have been made due to the 2022 World Cup having been scheduled in November and December of that year to avoid the extremely hot summer in that region.

CONMEBOL also announced that the Recopa Sudamericana between Copa Libertadores champions River Plate and Copa Sudamericana champions Atletico Paranaense will take place in May.

The first leg will take place in Brazil on 22 May with the return leg in Argentina set to take place on 29 May.