In South America, Venezuela is the only country that does not count football as its number one sport. Thanks to the influence of the American way of life, baseball and basketball enjoy more popularity. The national association is trying to boost international relations and to find challenging opposition for the national team. These steps, as well as a variety of youth development programmes, are designed to improve quality and help Venezuela to reach the top of South American football. There is much work to be done - but significant progress has been made in recent years.