RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The president of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), Alejandro Domínguez, said Copa America 2021 will be held in the Brazilian cities of Brasilia, Cuiabá, Goiânia, and Rio de Janeiro and promises to release the schedule soon. The original start date for the oldest international soccer tournament in the world is June 13.
“We will be holding the games in these cities with all possible security, without the presence of the public, with strict sanitary protocols, and aligned with the health authorities. We are working to, as soon as possible, be able to announce the adjusted competition schedule and the stadiums where the matches will be held,” Domínguez stated.
Alejandro thanked President Jair Bolsonaro, the Chief of Staff, Luiz Eduardo Ramos, and the local governments for their work to host Copa America, which was confirmed in Brazil on Monday, less than two weeks before its start. Ramos had disclosed, late Tuesday afternoon, the four states that will host matches of the competition.
According to CONMEBOL, only four cities will host Copa América games. On Tuesday, President Jair Bolsonaro said that “a fifth one was a little late”.
There is the expectation that at least one of the four cities will use more than one stadium. Goiânia has both the Olympic Stadium and the Serra Dourada stadium available. However, the governor of Goiás, Ronaldo Caiado, announced that only the Olympic Stadium would be used for the games themselves, with Serra Dourada would serve as support for the teams.
In the original format of the Copa América, eight stadiums would be used: four in Argentina and four in Colombia. Representatives of the Football Confederation should arrive between Tuesday night and Wednesday to the Brazilian cities that will host the tournament to evaluate the stadiums.
In all, 28 matches are scheduled for the competition between June 13 and July 9. Brazil’s debut is scheduled for June 14, against Venezuela. The Brazilian “Seleção” is in Group B, which also includes Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. Group A includes Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Conmebol is not expected to change the format and dates of the games.
Criticism from public opinion and players
The announcement of the Copa América being held in Brazil, with only 13 days’ notice, was accompanied by much criticism from public figures. Health experts criticized the choice of Brazil as the host country. The country has almost 465,000 deaths from Covid and 16.5 million confirmed cases of the disease.
Uruguayan players Matías Viña, with Palmeiras, and Arrascaeta, with Flamengo, have expressed their concerns about the tournament being held in Brazil. On Tuesday, Argentina’s Kun Agüero (newly hired by Barcelona) even said that “if the situation is complicated, don’t play.”
FIFPro, an organization that represents professional soccer players worldwide, published on Tuesday a statement showing concern about the relocation of Copa America to Brazil.
On Tuesday, Copa America was the target of criticism from senators in the Covid CPI. The committee’s rapporteur, Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), classified the decision as “mockery”, and even asked for Neymar’s help to prevent the tournament from taking place, asking him:
“Disagree with this Copa América being held in Brazil. This is not the championship that we now need to play. We need to play the vaccination championship. This is the championship we need to play to win, and you need to score goals to change this score.”
Shortly after CONMEBOL’s announcement that Brazil would be the new host for Copa America, congressmen spoke out against the competition coming to the country. Federal deputy Alexandre Padilha (PT-SP) announced that his party would file a lawsuit with the Supreme Court (STF) to prevent the event from being held in Brazil; it did so, and STF Justice Lewandowski gave President Bolsonaro 5 days in which to explain his decision.