Guests of the 2021 Copa América, the selections of Australia and Qatar will not take part.
Originally scheduled for 2020, and co-organized by Argentina and Colombia, the Copa América has been postponed to 2021 (from June 11 to July 10) due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The queen event of the South American continent will finally take place this summer as confirmed by Gonzalo Belloso, Deputy Secretary General of CONMEBOL in an interview with Argentinian radio. Radio La Red : “The Copa America is 100% confirmed and we even hope to be able to have 30% of spectators in the stadiums”, did he declare.
On the other hand, Qatar, who wants to improve, before hosting the 2022 World Cup as well as Australia, also with the aim of progressing, will not be in the game when these two countries had been invited. : “Australia and Qatar will not come to the Copa América. It won’t change anything. We will play ten instead of twelve if necessary. It will be the same format and with the same prize-money »Belloso added.
Australia and Qatar have to drop out due to the change in the 2022 World Cup qualifying schedule after many matches were postponed due to the coronavirus. Although automatically qualified, Qatar is forced to participate because these qualifiers are coupled with those of the 2023 Asian Cup of Nations.
CONMEBOL could however find two other teams within the CONCACAF zone to replace Australia and Qatar. Since 1993, many non-CONMEBOL teams have taken part in the Copa América. First there were Mexico and the United States in 1993 then Costa Rica (1997), Japan (1999), Honduras (2001), Jamaica (2015), Haiti and Panama (2016) and , and finally, Qatar (2019). And for its first participation, the Qatari selection was eliminated in the first round with a draw (against Paraguay) and two defeats (against Colombia and against Argentina).
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