USA to host the Copa America in 2016

USA to host the 2016 Copa America

The South American championship or more popularly known Copa America , goes to America in 2016 to celebrate the tournament’s 100th anniversary.

Both CONMEBOL and CONCACAF  jointly announced  that a special tournament will be organized in USA, consisting of 10 nations from CONMEBOL and 6 from CONCACAF. Other than USA and Mexico, the other two CONCACAF sides will include at least one Caribbean team (the winners of this year’s Caribbean Cup), this year’s Copa Centro Americana champions  and then the top four finishers in next year’s Gold Cup will play in a playoff for the final two places.

The competition will not disturb the Copa America tournaments scheduled for 2015 (Chile) and 2019 (Brazil). All the matches will take place in the USA,  with the tournament expecting to attract huge crowds as the  likes of  Neymar, Messi, Suarez, Falcao etc play for their respective national teams. The list of potential stadiums where the matches will be contested haven’t been decided yet but the reports suggests that the  Rose Bowl, the Sun Life Stadium in Miami  and the Met Life Stadium in New Jersey are potential destinations.

But with the World Cup and Copa America (CONMEBOL version) taking place in 2014 and 2015 respectively,  it is a big doubt that the top nations would field their “A” – teams,  though CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb did claim, “There is no question that some of the best talent in the world will be on display.”

The event could be one of the biggest sporting events in USA after the 2002 winter Olympics and the 1994 World Cup.