Venezuela were crowned champions for the second consecutive tournament, and qualified for the World Cup together with runners-up Brazil and third place Paraguay.[3]
Teams
All ten CONMEBOL member national teams entered the tournament.
Players born on or after 1 January 1999 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team could register a maximum of 22 players (three of whom must be goalkeepers).[4]
First stage
The draw of the tournament was held on 27 January 2016 at the CONMEBOL Headquarters in Luque, Paraguay.[5] The ten teams were drawn into two groups of five teams. Each group contained one team from each of the five "pairing pots": Venezuela–Brazil, Colombia–Paraguay, Argentina–Uruguay, Bolivia–Chile, Ecuador–Peru. The schedule of the tournament was announced on 18 February 2016.[6]
The top two teams of each group advanced to the final stage. The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers would be applied in the following order:[4]
If teams finished level of points, the final order would be determined according to the same criteria as the first stage, taking into account only matches in the final stage. If there was a continuing tie between teams after applying criteria 1–4, the first stage results would be taken into account.[4]