Some might opt for England’s Premier League. Others would nominate the Uefa Champions League or perhaps the World Cup or European Championship.

But a strong case can be made that the greatest soccer competition is the quadrennial World Cup qualifying for South America’s 10-nation confederation, generally known as Conmebol.

And a writer is making that case in this story in The Guardian.

He makes many good points … plus, the story has embedded in it a special prize.

Let’s consider some pros and cons for “Conmebol, best soccer competition in the world”. Starting with the pros.

–It contains several of the planet’s top soccer nations. Three of the 10 Conmebol countries have won World Cup championships — Brazil (five), Argentina (two) and Uruguay (two). A fourth, Chile, has a third-place finish. Nine of the 10 have played in a World Cup. That makes it world-class.

–It is extremely competitive. If we look at the semi-annual Copa America, the continental championship, no fewer than eight of the 10 Conmebol members have won at least once, and six of the eight have won it at least twice. Even the two non-winners, Ecuador and Venezuela, have finished fourth once.

(Compare that to the sprawling federations from North America, Europe, Asia and Africa, which have a dozen or more no-hopers cluttering their competitions. See: Belize, San Marino, Bhutan, Djibouti, etc.)

–Conmebol qualifying is extremely tidy and fair — each of the 10 teams plays the other nine twice — home and away. No draws determine who gets an easy group or a hard one in (often) multiple rounds of qualifying. That fairness is attractive.

–Conmebol countries have long and ongoing rivalries. No one in South America has to scramble for a map to see where their next opponent is located. It’s “those same nine guys we always play”.

–Many of the world’s greatest players come from South America, including the two widely considered the best to play the game — Pele and Maradona. Plus perhaps three of the four greatest players at this moment — Messi (Argentina), Suarez (Uruguay) and Neymar (Brazil). Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo is the only non-South American in the mix.

–Conmebol venues are amazingly varied. Two countries, Bolivia and Ecuador, play their home matches at ridiculous heights (11,900 and 9,300 feet, respectively). Others, like Venezuela and Colombia, might make you play in high temperatures, and Brazil certainly could if it wanted to into the Amazon.

–The results tend to be such that the four teams which qualify directly for the World Cup are unlikely to be decided until the final round of competition. Also, the fifth-place team can qualify for the World Cup after playing home and away against another confederation — and Conmebol teams have won five of the six playoffs they have appeared in.

Lots of pros, then.

What cons can we come up with?

—Venezuela. Historically, it has been as much a baseball country as soccer country. It didn’t bother with trying to qualify for the World Cup until 1966, and has never qualified for the big event. It went 40 years between scoring goals in the Copa America. Becoming more competitive, but sitting last at this writing. As usual.

–The other nine can be parked into three tiers. The four who should qualify and go deep in the World Cup — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. The next two, Colombia and Paraguay, might be world-class at any given moment, or may not; and then the third-tier trio of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, who generally do not trouble the top six.

–Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. All are in South America, in the northeast of the continent. None play in Conmebol. (They play in Concacaf/North America, instead.) Seems like Conmebol is a club that doesn’t want to let in the little guys.

That’s about all I have, on the con side.

I would love to cover one team all the way through the tournament, all 18 matches, including the nine on the road — and “the road” can be of almost any description.

OK, as for the treat? If you follow the link to The Guardian story, you can find an embedded video that lasts for 13 minutes and shows six Argentina fans (mostly) suffering through the final of this year’s Copa America Centenario — which Chile won in a shootout. If you understand Argentine Spanish, it’s even more fun.