[This is the first article in a four-part tournament preview. The next articles will go into more detail about the competitors, who I think the favorites are to win, and how I think the tourney will play out.]
Copa América 2021 will be the 47th edition of the – since 2007 – quadrennial tournament among the ten nations of South America organized by the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL). Now I know there is probably some confusion as to why the previous three, this one, and the 2024 Copa América will all have been played in the span of 10 years, so, let me explain.
The 2015 Copa América happened on schedule, however, 2016 marked the 100th anniversary of the tournament’s existence and the organizers thought having a one-of celebratory tourney sounded like a good plan. With South America already having a major event (Summer Olympics taking place in Brazil), it was decided that the USA would host instead, as a neutral site for everyone, one with the ready infrastructure and good-sized, lucrative venues. That version doubled the regular participants to 24 and was an economic success.
The 2019 Copa América followed the pattern of every four years in terms of the 2015 edition. So now comes 2021. This tournament was originally meant to be played in 2020 as part of a calendar change, which would have the normal Copa played every four years. But, due to COVID, it was postponed until now. This is also the reason why you may have noticed that three tournaments are being played this year: The Euro, Copa América and the Gold Cup.
The tournament comprises the 10 countries of South America and usually includes two guest nations, with the last edition’s guests being Japan and Qatar, and the invitees for this current tournament were to be Qatar and Australia. Unfortunately, the Covid pandemic forced the World Cup 2022 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifiers schedule to change, and the resulting dates conflicted with the Copa prompting the withdrawal of the two AFC invitees. The tournament will now take place in the span of about a month, from June 13th to July 10th. In this year’s edition, Argentina and Colombia were supposed to be co-hosts of the event, but, due to civil unrest in Colombia and the surge of COVID-19 cases in Argentina, CONMEBOL decided that Brazil (who are the current title holders and most recent past hosts) would host the tournament again.
The tournament will consist of 28 matches that will be played in 5 different venues across Brazil.
Venues:
- Estádio do Maracanã (Rio de Janeiro) *will host the Final
- Estádio Nilton Santos (Rio de Janeiro)
- Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha (Brasília) *will host the opening match
- Arena Pantanal (Cuiabá)
- Estádio Olímpico (Goiânia)
The Tournament will unfold as follows: There are 10 teams that will be put into two groups of five. The top four teams from each group will then move onto the quarterfinals. The winner of the quarterfinals will then advance to the semi-finals. The two losers of the semi-finals will play a match for third place, and the winners of the semi-finals will play for the first-place trophy.
Stay tuned for my next article where I will be breaking down Groups A and B.
Photo: Maracana Stadium- Public Domain/Arquivo Nacional Collection
