After the withdrawal of Colombia and Argentina given the health and social context, the South American Football Confederation awarded the organization of the 2021 Copa America to Brazil on Monday (June 13-July 10). Except that the Brazilian government, faced with general dissatisfaction, has started to backpedal.
Did you find the organization of the Euro complicated? Welcome to South America, where a dozen days before the start of the Copa América 2021 (June 13-July 10), no one knows for sure where the tournament will be played. Not even if it will be played …
After the successive withdrawals of Colombia and then Argentina – initial organizers – due to the health crisis and political unrest, the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) on Monday designated Brazil to everyone’s surprise as the new host country . But in the face of the rain of criticism, the Brazilian government announced in the evening that nothing was final yet, confusing everyone.
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Final decision this Tuesday?
“There is nothing set at the moment, I want to make it very clear. We are in the middle of the process. But we are not going to shy away from this request if it is possible to respond to it. “, said government secretary Luiz Eduardo Ramos in Brasilia. The latter even set out conditions: a total closed session as well as restricted delegations and all vaccinated. According to him, a “final position” will be taken on Tuesday.
Earlier, the Brazilian vice-president Hamilton Mourao had however justified a choice which involves “less risk”. “The advantage is the size of our country and the number of stadiums. We can spread the matches all over the country,” he said.
According to the president of Conmebol, Alejandro Dominguez, Brazil “has the proven infrastructure and the accumulated and recent experience”, with the 2014 World Cup and the 2019 Copa América, “to organize a competition of this magnitude”.
“A murderous government”
Except that during the day, an avalanche of criticism came to fall from epidemiologists, believing that the Copa América “will contribute to the resurgence of the pandemic”, and members of the opposition announcing wanting to seize the Court supreme to cancel the tournament, whose host cities have not yet been defined.
“Argentina have refused the Copa América due to the worsening pandemic. There, the average number of deaths over the last seven days has been 470 people … Here it has been 1,844. Four times more. This is what a murderous government looks like, “reacted Marcelo Freixo, opposition member of the Socialism and Freedom Party (left) on Twitter. Brazil has the second deadliest death toll in the world after the United States, and only 11% of the population has received two doses of the vaccine.
As for the actors, we want to be more or less serene. Some players, and not the least, are starting to question the relevance of holding the tournament. “I am struck by the fact that the Copa América is being played despite the current situation,” said Luis Suarez, just crowned Spanish champion with Atlético de Madrid, back in Uruguay to play on June 3 and 8, two qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
His compatriot Edinson Cavani (Manchester United) pointed to “terrible irresponsibility” while his captain Diego Godin asked for “guarantees and peace of mind for all” participants.
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