SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 28 March 2024, Thursday |

Copa America 2021 moved to Brazil, CONMEBOL Federation reports

The biggest football tournament in South America, Copa America, was moved to Brazil on Monday following a Covid-19 outbreak in Argentina and the co-hosts in Colombia were stripped of the right to host the event.

The CONMEBOL Football Federation of South America tweets with two weeks to kick off that “CONMEBOL Copa America 2021, in Brazil!” And the dates from 13 to 10 July are kept.

The venues and dates for the next hours are expected to be announced by CONMEBOL.

The last Copa America, 2019, was hosted by Brazil.

Originally scheduled for last year, the Copa was postponed by 12 months due to the coronavirus epidemic.

New host Brazil is one of the countries in the world worst affected by the outbreak, with the second-highest death toll of over 460,000 so far and more than 16.5 million cases.

It was to have been the first time in its history that the tournament would be co-hosted by two countries, Argentina and Colombia.

But ten days ago, CONMEBOL stripped Colombia of its duties amid street protests that were met with a heavy-handed police response that drew international condemnation. More than a month into the unrest, dozens of people have died.

On Sunday, CONMEBOL also stripped Argentina of hosting rights in the context of a record coronavirus surge, with more than 77,000 deaths in the pandemic to date and nearly 3.8 million infections.

    Source:
  • AFP