Lionel Messi and Argentina are to be target the nation’s 23-year title drought when the Copa America Centenario kicks off tomorrow after a troubled build-up marred by corruption allegations that threatened to derail the event.
One-hundred years after Uruguay clinched the inaugural four-team South American championship in Argentina, 16 teams from across the Americas are gathered in the US for a special one-off edition of the tournament. The three-week festival of soccer gets underway at the Levi’s Stadium in California tomorrow, when the US faces Colombia at the home of the San Francisco 49ers NFL team. The tournament is to conclude with a final at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on June 26, drawing a line under what is arguably the biggest tournament held in the US since the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
Billed as a celebration of soccer across the Americas, 10 South American teams and six teams from the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) region make up the field. For organizers, the mere fact that the tournament is taking place at all is something of a triumph. For several months last year, the Copa America Centenario faced an uncertain future after the arrest and indictment for corruption of several officials from South America and CONCACAF responsible for organizing up the tournament.
Photo: AP
When plans for the tournament were launched at a glitzy event in Miami in 2014, then-CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb stood proudly alongside then-South American Football Federation (CONMEBOL) president Eugenio Figueredo.
“The American continent may have been discovered in 1492, but I cannot imagine a better way to unite this continent than with football,” Webb said.
Yet if prosecutors have their way, both men may soon be united behind bars. Webb and Figueredo were among several officials arrested in Switzerland in May last year as part of a US-led corruption investigation that ultimately led to the sensational downfall of former FIFA president Sepp Blatter. With impeccable timing, Webb is due to appear in a New York courtroom tomorrow — the day of the opening match — to face sentencing for his role in the scandal.
Figueredo, 84, was extradited to Uruguay from Switzerland in December last year and also faces criminal prosecution. Both Figueredo and Webb — as well as former CONMEBOL president Nicolas Leoz — are accused of pocketing millions of US dollars in bribes linked to the award of media rights for the tournament, part of a scam dubbed a “World Cup of Fraud.”
The sleazy background to the competition threatened to take the shine off an event that is to bring together some of the world’s best players. Messi and Argentina are aiming to win the nation’s first major title since the 1993 Copa America after a series of recent near-misses. Argentina lost both the 2014 World Cup final and last year’s Copa America in Chile. Messi, due in Spain this week to attend his trial for tax fraud, said it is time Argentina’s talented players delivered.
“It has been a very long time since Argentina has won anything, and this group came very close in the World Cup and at the last Copa America,” he said. “I think we deserve to be champions of an important competition.”
Argentina open their campaign against Chile in Santa Clara, California, on Monday. Panama and Bolivia complete Group D. The US are aiming to progress from a “Group of Death,” which includes Colombia, Costa Rica and Paraguay. Five-time World Cup winners Brazil are favored to safely navigate Group B, where they face Ecuador, Haiti and Peru. Brazil open against Ecuador on Saturday at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, where they won the 1994 World Cup final. Mexico and Uruguay are expected to progress from Group C, with Jamaica and Venezuela completing the field.
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