The South American division of the World Cup qualifiers has begun fierce competition, and the World Cup has entered the 2026 cycle from the 2023 cycle. For many fans, Argentina and Brazil are undoubtedly the most concerned teams in the South American division. After the World Cup quota in South America increased from 4.5 to 6.5, many teams have also seen hope of advancing, such as Uruguay, Chile, and others in previous World Cup qualifiers The incidents of strong teams such as Colombia falling out may become increasingly rare.

However, the South American qualifiers can be said to have the most bizarre and fair World Cup qualifier format in the world. The World Cup qualifiers in South America do not require grouping at all. After two rounds of matchups and 18 rounds of matches, 10 South American teams are ranked and ultimately decide which teams will enter the World Cup.

In fact, this tournament system in South America was established after the 1998 World Cup. In the early years, the South American World Cup qualifiers were still divided into groups. In 1994, Argentina participated in the World Cup qualifiers playoffs because they were pushed to second place by Colombia. However, they ultimately defeated Australia and advanced smoothly.

Since the expansion of the World Cup to 32 teams, the South American region has always adopted a double round robin system for the World Cup qualifiers, which has made the number of World Cup qualifiers in the South American region one of the highest among all continents. In addition to the close strength between South American teams, the South American qualifiers have always been quite exciting.

But the seemingly fair competition system actually hides some big problems. You can see some clues from a match in the last World Cup. In the 2023 World Cup qualifiers, Brazil and Argentina unquestionably finished in the top two of the South American region and advanced to the 2023 Qatar World Cup without losing a single game. Brazil achieved a record of 14 wins and 3 draws, while Argentina achieved a record of 11 wins and 6 draws. Why did the two teams only play 17 games when the 10 teams in South America had to play 18 games?

In September 2023, Brazil and Argentina were supposed to have a second leg match between the two teams. In the first leg, the two teams played 0-0 at Argentina's home ground, and fans around the world were watching the match between the two teams. However, due to some off field factors, this match was forced to be cancelled. At that time, the South American Football Confederation decided to postpone the match.

But this delay became a distant prospect, especially in the later matches of the World Cup qualifiers where both teams played quite smoothly, with the third placed team already leading by more than 10 points. Therefore, when deciding on the time for this supplementary match, they kept dragging it on and on.

In the end, Argentina and Brazil decided to cancel the match as soon as they saw that it did not affect their progress to the World Cup. This is not an ordinary warm-up match, after all, it is a World Cup qualifier under the umbrella of FIFA. Both teams cancelled this game and were naturally fined by FIFA, but this supplementary match ultimately did not come. However, it is evident that even if the two teams play this match, no matter what the outcome, it will not affect their promotion to the World Cup, which may be the most bizarre aspect of the South American division system.