CONMEBOL football federation has announced that South America’s largest football tournament, the Copa America will be played in Brazil. Earlier, Argentina and Colombia were co-hostingthe event, however, this could not happen due to the sudden Covid surge in Argentina and social unrest in Colombia.
“The CONMEBOL Copa America 2021 will be played in Brazil,” tweeted South America’s CONMEBOL football federation. The dates June 13 to July 10 are maintained and the venuesand dates of the matches will be announced soon.
Brazil had hosted the last Copa America in 2019. The Copa America 2021 was scheduled last year, however, got postponed by 12 months due to the coronavirus pandemic, which is still wreakinghavoc in several countries including South America and Argentina.
Argentina has recorded nearly 3.8 million coronavirus cases with 77,000 deaths. Colombia on the other side is dealing with anti-government protests that were met with a heavy-handed policeresponse that drew international attention. Dozens of people have died in the protest.
With unfortunate conditions in Argentina and Colombia, there were threats that the event might get postponed again. However, it was decided that the host of the 2019 tournament will be steppingup and one again hosts Copa America.
Brazil is also baldy hit by coronavirus outbreak with the second-highest number of deaths of over 460,000 and more than 16.5 million cases.