We Need To Talk About The 2024 Copa América

The Copa América is the oldest still-running continental football tournament in the world, but whilst it's first 44 editions, spanning almost 100 years, were hosted in South America, two of the last four Copas have been hosted by the United States of America.

The 2024 Copa América, like the Copa América Centenario in 2016, isn't just being hosted by the United States, but also features six CONCACAF national teams, alongside the ten from CONMEBOL.

It's a strange, but revealing, dynamic, which speaks to the way in which football is changing - and so, in this video, HITC Sevens takes a look at the slightly unusual 2024 Copa América, why it is controversial, and what it tells us about the direction in which football - or soccer - is heading.

My Social Links:

Other HITC football / soccer / Premier League socials (not run by me):

[firasic]

You enter to watch a copa America video and then you find yourself getting educated about the Ecuadorian economy, thanks Alfie

[Ramtamtama]

In South America, the word "America" usually refers to the entire Americas, so Copa America is a suitable name for a competition that includes the USA and Mexico as well as the CONMEBOL members

[tonyx]

I think Conmebol and CONCACAF should agree to scrap the gold cup and make it a true copa America. North and South America

[hec]

Rooting hard for Colombia to win the “Copper America”

[TehStormOG]

it seems like more people outside the americas have a problem with this tournament than people actually living here

[SinNombreYQueWea]

As someone from South America, one of the reasons I think the Euros is more appealing to a broader audience is that they have a lot of teams playing in it. Copa America is just as high quality as the Euros in my opinion, but with Conmebol only having 10 countries in total as a confederation, it feels like a much smaller tournament in comparisson. It doesn't matter how much you hype up the Confederations Cup for example, even though it was composed of the winners of the 6 continental champions around the world, it always felt less important, appealing and prestigious than winning whatever continental cup your confederation holds every 4 years instead.

This is why they traditionally invite 2 non-Conmebol teams, most of the time being Concacaf teams, and I REALLY wouldn't mind if they scrapped the Gold Cup from Concacaf and instead Conmebol and Concacaf held a joint Copa America every 4 years, specially considering Concacaf has 41 member nations. It's good to remember that Concacaf was born after the North and Central american confederations joined together in 1961.

It'd make it a much bigger tournament and more appealing in my opinion, and it could help level the playing field between Concacaf and Conmebol.

Maybe they don't even need to scrap the Gold Cup, it can just stay as a lower-tiered competition and then there's the true Copa America.

[abdulhameedabu]

I don't see any problem here, the tournament began with three countries, change is constant, it's either this or the tournament continues to decline in popularity

[antoinedodsonsbandana]

To be fair, Mexico and the US are still in America. Qatar on the other hand...

[dpads]

As an American can confirm there's nothing worse than the US ticket market. Hopefully the US Justice Dept. wins their case against Ticketmaster/Live Nation and the situation can improve

[someperson]

The 16 team format guarantees:
1. Every CONMEBOL nation plays at least 1 CONCACAF nation
2. No 3rd place teams advance

[juanperret]

I'm really happy with new copa format. Finally 4 groups of 4

[amadocarrillo]

“Like the African cup of nations hosted by Austria” I don’t think it’s the same scenario as it’s literally called “copa America” which makes sense because it’s all American countries

[brunobernardicoutinho]

As a brazilian, I have absolutely loved this new format

[pauleragbai]

⁠Copa America literally translates to cup of America/America Cup. Both continents of North and South America are literally referred to together as the Americas. There is nothing weird nor wrong about this

[edinan]

I'm Brazilian, and i think most south americans are happy with this edition of the copa america. We are a small continent, so having more countries participaring is nice, plus Mexico and USA have competitive teams to play against. I honestly think it's a Win/Win situation.

[prsancho]

Ecuador just had a country-wide blackout this week. Can you imagine if the Copa were being held there?

[DaleFCB]

I don't see the issue here North and South are collectively known as the Americas, and if you're going to allow teams from outside South America to compete it only makes sense to let them host it as well.

[davidbowie]

Copa America is basically what it should be. It's part of the American continent, not for South America alone.

[jamthefed]

As someone who live in the CONCACAF region I live this format much better. All the bigger countries treat the Gold Cup very passively as best, last Gold Cup all the bigger teams pretty much had the B squads playing. The European Championships best format was when it was 16 teams. Having all 10 South America and 6 CONCACAF members qualify is pretty fair split and still be pretty competitive.

[Andrew-bddc]

I feel like its not a real Copa America unless there are teams competing from both North and South America.