After 29 years, a Uruguayan team won the 44th South American Indoor Soccer Championship, held in Maldonado, Uruguay, which concluded on Saturday, March 16, 2025.
Albion de Pan de Azúcar, from the same department of Maldonado, one of the Uruguayan clubs that competed in the competition, won the title by defeating Domingo Favio of Bolivia by three goals to one in the final.
This is the second title won by the Eastern Indoor Soccer Federation in history, and it comes 29 years after the only previous triumph, which was achieved by the Nacional de Montevideo club, also on Uruguayan soil but in the capital, at the Atenas gym in 1996.
The Altiplano team was also looking for a second title, which eluded them, after having won the only continental star, one of their representatives, CRE de Santa Cruz, in the 2006 season.
The Paraguayan teams, which hold the most crowns, were eliminated from the playoffs for the first time in eight years.
One of them, Sportivo Alteño, inflicted the only defeat on the eventual champion, Albion, at the start of the tournament, beating them 4-3.
Then the Uruguayans reacted and qualified with two victories to the semifinals with two thrashings (11 to 2 against Arapotiense of Brazil and 10 to 2 against Maipú of Chile) and in the game to access the final they beat the other Paraguayan team, 29 de Setiembre by 7 to 5 to reach the definition also successful while the other finalist, Domingo Savio, left Alteño out in a decision by penalties after a 3 to 3 tie.
Independencia of Uruguay, Arapotiense of Brazil, and Chilean teams Maipú City and Anglosajón did not make it past the group stage.
Two stadiums hosted the competition: the Maldonado Campus (the venue for the final) and the José Pontes Stadium at Pan de Azúcar Stadium, which was initially scheduled to host the title match. However, due to serious incidents during the semifinal, the final matchday was moved to the Maldonado Campus, a larger venue with better safety conditions.
