Two weeks before the start of the Copa América, Conmebol decided that this regional tournament should not be played in Argentina due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the South American Football Confederation said in a tweet on Sunday.
“La Conmebol informs that in view of the current circumstances, it has decided to suspend the organization of the Copa América in Argentina“, says the press release.
La Conmebol specifies analyzing “the offer of other countries that have expressed an interest in hosting the continental tournament“.
Among the possible options is Chile, as recently mentioned by a Conmebol official, Argentina’s Gonzalo Belloso.
The Copa América is the most important international competition organized by the Conmebol.
Argentina should have co-hosted the Copa América with Colombia, where social unrest that left dozens of people dead made it impossible to organize.
As for Argentina, the Argentinian Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, recently warned of the difficulties of such an organization as the country of 45 million inhabitants is going through the most critical period of the pandemic with more than 41,000 people infected for Thursday alone.
It has exceeded 3.7 million positive cases and 77,000 deaths since the start of the health emergency.
For these reasons, according to a poll released on Friday, 70% of Argentines were opposed to their country organizing the Copa América.
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