The 2020 South American U-17 Women's Championship was originally going be the seventh edition of the South American Under-17 Women's Football Championship (Spanish: CONMEBOL Sudamericano Femenino Sub-17), the biennial international youth football championship organised by CONMEBOL for the women's under-17 national teams of South America. It was scheduled to be held in Uruguay between 15 April and 3 May 2020,[1] before its suspension and subsequent cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tournament was originally to be held in Venezuela from 15 April to 3 May 2020.[2][3] However, CONMEBOL announced on 9 March 2020 that it would instead be held in Uruguay on the same dates.[4][5]
CONMEBOL announced on 19 March 2020 that the tournament would be postponed to late August and early September due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in South America.[6][7] On 1 June 2020, after FIFA postponed the 2020 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup until February/March 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[8] CONMEBOL announced that the tournament would be further postponed to November.[9] On 6 August 2020, CONMEBOL confirmed that the tournament would be played between 30 November – 19 December 2020.[10] On 30 October 2020, CONMEBOL further postponed the tournament to January 2021.[11][12]
In November 2020 FIFA decided to cancel the 2021 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup due to health and safety reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic.[13] Consequently, on 25 November, CONMEBOL announced that the tournament would be held in the second half of 2021 in order to complete the teams preparation cycle.[14][15][16] Eventually, CONMEBOL decided to cancel the tournament during a meeting of its council held on 3 August 2021.[17]
As the 2021 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup was cancelled this tournament would not have served as qualifier for any FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. Originally the top three teams would have qualified as the CONMEBOL representatives.