By Andrew Warshaw
June 1 – The Copa America, the world’s oldest continental football competition, has been plunged into chaos after Argentina followed Colombia in being stripped of co-hosting rights, with the tournament now set to take place at the 11thhour in Brazil.
South America’s showpiece event, due to begin in just two weeks’ time, was moved Monday by Conmebol because Argentina, which only last week volunteered to stage the tournament on its own, was relieved of hosting duties due to its dangerous Covid-19 pandemic surge.
Conmebol president Alejandro Domínguez announced the move less than two weeks after Colombia was also removed as co-hosts amid violent street protests against President Iván Duque.
Conmebol confirmed the tournament would take place on schedule between June 13 and July 10. But the decision to hand the 10-nation Copa to Brazil, relocating it from one South American coronavirus hotspot to another, was greeted with astonishment by local health experts and politicians in a country that has been devastated by the pandemic.
Brazil is the defending champion, winning the competition in 2019 as hosts, and now gets the chance to stage back-to-back Copas, a public relations triumph for the country’s controversial leader Jair Bolsonaro who was praised by Conmebol for “opening the doors of this country for the safest sporting event in the world today. South America will shine in Brazil with all its stars.”
Bolsanaro has challenged social distancing restrictions and called for a return to normal life despite a slow vaccine rollout. But Dominguez heaped thanks on Brazil for “showing quickness and decision making skills in a moment that is fundamental for South American soccer.”
Brazil, he added, “lives in a moment of stability, has a proven infrastructure and accumulated recent experience to organise a tournament of this magnitude.”
His comments came 48 hours after thousands of Brazilians took the streets to protest against Bolsonaro. More than 460,000 people have died of COVID-19 in Brazil, second only to the United States. Many analysts are expecting another wave of the disease to hit the country by late June.
Games are to be played behind closed doors but lawmakers and health experts described the decision to allow Brazil to host as folly.
Opposition congressman Marcelo Freixo was among the first to denounce the latest move.
“Argentina refused the Copa America because of the worsening pandemic. There, the average of deaths in the last seven days was 470 people… Here, it’s 1,844. FOUR TIMES MORE. This is a picture of a murderous government,” he said.
Renan Calheiros, the senator leading the upper house’s inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic, dubbed the tournament the “championship of death”.
Under the new format, it would have been the first Copa America hosted by two countries. Five teams were to be based in each of the co-hosts. Group A features Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay while Group B comprises Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.
As tensions mounted about the situation in both Colombia and Argentina, Chile was reported to have been on standby. Instead the green light has been given to Brazil which has the best infrastructure in the region, with several modern stadiums left over from the Brazil 2014 World Cup.
Conmebol, which is expected to announce venues and dates for the matches in the next couple of days, had been reluctant to cancel the lucrative tournament which, two years ago, brought in $118 million in revenue.
But that doesn’t wash with senior health experts.
“An event of that size moves countless people, even if the matches are held in empty stadiums. And moving people increases the spread of the virus. It’s going to contribute to a new flare-up,” Jose David Urbaez, Brasilia’s pandemic expert, told AFP.
“The tournament should have been cancelled, full stop.”
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