The 1997 South American Under-17 Football Championship was played in Paraguay from 28 February to 16 March 1997.
The host of the competition were the cities of Asunción, Pedro Juan Caballero and Encarnación.
Sandro Hiroshi was banned for 180 days in 1999 when it was discovered that his age had been falsified in the 1997 tournament. Brazil did not face team sanctions as the federation argued that Hiroshi acted without its authorization.
First round The 10 national teams were divided in 2 groups of 5 teams each. The top 2 teams qualified for the final round.
Group A
TeamPtsMWDLGFGC943011149430172642023944112681401326
28 February 1997Venezuela2:0EcuadorEncarnaciónParaguay1:0PeruEncarnación2 March 1997Argentina6:0VenezuelaEncarnaciónParaguay1:2EcuadorEncarnación4 March 1997Ecuador2:3ArgentinaEncarnaciónPeru0:1VenezuelaEncarnación6 March 1997Argentina2:0PeruEncarnaciónParaguay3:0VenezuelaEncarnación8 March 1997Ecuador2:2PeruEncarnaciónParaguay2:0ArgentinaEncarnación
Group B
TeamPtsMWDLGFGC842208374211937421152642024404004115
1 March 1997Bolivia0:2ColombiaPedro Juan CaballeroBrazil1:1ChilePedro Juan Caballero3 March 1997Brazil4:0BoliviaPedro Juan CaballeroUruguay1:0ChilePedro Juan Caballero5 March 1997Bolivia1:7ChilePedro Juan CaballeroUruguay0:2ColombiaPedro Juan Caballero7 March 1997Brazil1:1ColombiaPedro Juan CaballeroUruguay2:0BoliviaPedro Juan Caballero9 March 1997Brazil2:1UruguayPedro Juan CaballeroChile1:0ColombiaPedro Juan Caballero
Final round The final round were played in the same system that first round, with the best 4 teams.
TeamPtsPJPGPEPPGFGC93300124431114233102591301217
11 March 1997Argentina3:0ChileAsunciónBrazil5:0ParaguayAsunción13 March 1997Argentina0:0ParaguayAsunciónBrazil5:3ChileAsunción16 March 1997Argentina1:2BrazilAsunciónParaguay1:2ChileAsunción
Brazil, Argentina and Chile qualify to FIFA U-17 World Cup, Egypt '97
Top goalscorers TeamPlayersGoalsGeovanni4Milovan Mirosevic4Juan Viveros4
Ideal Team of the Tournament TeamPlayersPositionFranco CostanzoGKJaniroDFPaulo da SilvaDFGabriel MilitoDFJorginhoDFFerrugemMDTacioMDRonaldinhoMDMilovan MirosevicMDJuan ViverosFWLuciano GallettiFW
References South American U-17 Championship 1997 (Paraguay) Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation