Until the end, Colombia tried to host the Copa América on its soil, which it was to co-organize with Argentina. But the demonstrations punctuated by violence and death in the country for several weeks, finally resulted in the relocation of matches.
Bogota modestly brandished the Covid-19 card to request a postponement “at the end of the year” of the competition, according to Sports Minister Ernesto Lucena, in a message to the media. The social sling has nothing to do with this request, hammered the government.
“At the moment, the impossibility of counting with the public means that the Copa is not the event of which we all dream, “argued Mr. Lucena.” We ask that Colombia, like Argentina, see each other give a deadline which will allow this event to be carried out in the best possible way with supporters in the stadiums.“
But the Colombian demand has remained a dead letter. Conmebol, the governing body of South American football, replied that it is “impossible to postpone the Copa América 2021 to November“, “for reasons related to the international calendar and tournament logistics“.
The places where the matches initially planned in Colombia will be moved will be announced later, she added in a statement.
The Copa América, scheduled for 2020 in Argentina and Colombia, had already been postponed by one year due to the pandemic. It is due to start in three weeks, on June 13, while Latin America, at the approach of the southern winter, suffers the blows of a devastating third wave. Argentina, with 45 million inhabitants, suffered 744 deaths on Tuesday, a new record. In Colombia (50 million inhabitants), nearly 500 people have perished on average every day this last week, again a peak since the start of the pandemic.
But the tournament had to be played behind closed doors anyway and Conmebol had bet on the vaccination of South American professional football by distributing 50,000 doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine.
“It is striking that today it is said that the Cup cannot take place because there will be no people in the stadiums. It’s not believable“, observes sports journalist Steven Arce, interviewed by AFP.
Because in addition to the pandemic, which reduced the rate of poor in the country from 37 to 42%, Colombia is also hit by a social sling, triggered by a plan to increase taxes weighing on the middle class. Despite the withdrawal of the bill, the police repression fanned a flame of protest which has not been extinguished. Since April 28, anti-government protests have left at least 42 dead, including a police officer, and more than 1,700 injured. New marches are planned soon.
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