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Conmebol designated Brazil as the venue for the Copa América soccer on Monday after weeks of uncertainty in which the organization of the tournament was withdrawn from Colombia and Argentina, the initial hosts of the competition.
“CONMEBOL @CopaAmerica 2021 will be played in Brazil! The start and end dates of the tournament are confirmed. The venues and the fixture will be informed by CONMEBOL in the next few hours,” said the governing body of South American football in its account of Twitter
“CONMEBOL thanks the President @jairbolsonaro and his team, as well as the Brazilian Football Confederation @CBF_Futebol for opening the doors of that country to what is today the safest sporting event in the world,” he added.
The most important national team competition on the continent was going to be played for the first time in two venues, Argentina and Colombia, but the wave of coronavirus infections ruled out Argentina, just as it happened days ago with Colombia due to the social protests that the country for more than a month.
The tournament dates remain as scheduled, between June 13 and July 10.
The choice of Brazil raises doubts because, like Argentina now, the pandemic is not under control.
With more than 460,000 deaths and 16 million infections, Brazil has the second highest number of deaths from covid-19 in the world.
Brazil has already organized and won the Copa América in 2019.
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