2022 World Cup South American qualifying to begin in September, confirms CONMEBOL

South American qualifying matches for the 2022 FIFA World Cup will commence from September this year, governing body CONMEBOL confirmed on Friday (local time).

Earlier, the qualifying matches were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"As for the FIFA Qualifiers for the World Cup Qatar 2022, it is a FIFA competition and, therefore, it is up to the highest entity in world football to establish the date of celebration of this qualifying competition," CONMEBOL said in an official statement.

"To date, the date set by this body for its celebration is from 4 to 8 September 2020, in the format previously established," it added.

Last month, CONMEBOL had asked FIFA to postpone the start of the qualifying matches as the first two rounds of matches could not be played in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The South American football governing body also clarified that no date has not yet been set for the resumption of CONMEBOL's domestic competitions such as Copa Sulamericana and Libertadores 2020.

These decisions were announced as a meeting with the members of the council and presidents of the different member associations took place in order to analyse and follow up the situation generated by coronavirus in continental football.

( With inputs from ANI )

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