Organizers looking to make Copa More “America”

By Juan_Arango / 22 February 2011 / Comments are Disabled

In many Spanish-speaking countries there is one American continent. On Tuesday the idea of one continental tournament began to simmer. The 2014 World Cup organizing committee confirmed that Brazil will host the 2015 Copa America. The announcement was made official during the General Assembly of the World Cup Host City committee on Tuesday. This was being talked about as Chile was scheduled to do so but instead decided to host the tournament in 2019. This also comes despite Bolivian president Evo Morales saying his country would be hosting the tournament.

The big news though was the fact that the 2015 edition of the oldest international tournament in the world would have a different twist. According to an article by Brazilian site Futnet, they will study the possibility of unifying both CONMEBOL and CONCACAF in an effort to have a 16-team tournament that would be closer to what what the European Cup has in place right now. Although it is in its initial stage of planning, they have not considered how the respective representations of CONCACAF and CONMEBOL would be determined for the Confederations Cup. They also do not talk about a qualification tournament or the continuation of the Gold Cup.

All of this comes from the controversy that developed after the United States fielded a B-side for the 2007 Copa in Venezuela and Mexico will be doing the same this coming southern hemisphere winter solstice. Mexico, much like the US in 2007, will be coming off a Gold Cup that will have a spot in the Confederations Cup on the line. That would automatically put the Copa America very low on the footballing totem pole.

The move would be intensify work schedules the country prepares to be the epicenter of the sporting world for four years. The tournament being built would give some of the new stadiums even more use beyond the World Cup.

This year’s edition of the Copa America will be held in Argentina and will have 12 teams. There will be three groups of four consisting of all CONMEBOL teams as well as invitees Mexico (U-23) and Japan. The top two teams in each group along with the two best third place teams would qualify to the next round.