South American football governing body CONMEBOL on Monday announced Brazil as the new hosts for Copa America 2021 in place of Argentina which was suspended as host country on Sunday night ‘in view of the current circumstances’, as the football crazy country endures a record surge in Covid-19 cases.
“The CONMEBOL @CopaAmerica 2021 will be played in Brazil! Tournament start and end dates are confirmed. The venues and the fixture will be informed by CONMEBOL in the next few hours. The oldest national team tournament in the world will make the whole continent vibrate!, the governing body tweeted.
The 47th edition of the tournament that will take place from June 13 to July 10 was initially supposed to jointly hosted by Argentina and Colombia.
But last week due to growing deadly unrest in Colombia, they were stripped as co-hosts and on Sunday CONMEBOL annouced that the tournament is not possible in Argentina too which left the marquee South American event without a host country only two weeks before kickoff.
“CONMEBOL informs that in view of the current circumstances it has decided to suspend the organization of the Copa America in Argentina,” CONMEBOL had tweeted.
The Copa America like other continental tournaments was originally due to take place in 2020, but was postponed for an year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Brazil are the defending champions and will face Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru in the group stages.