Antonio Rüdiger and Luka Modric of Real Madrid during the semi-final of the Spanish Super Cup against Atlético de Madrid at the Al-Awwal Park stadium in Riyadh, January 10, 2024. FAYEZ NURELDINE / AFP
“Israel in Copa América” is not false information randomly generated by artificial intelligence, but now a possibility. Thursday April 11, the Israeli Football Federation (IFA) concluded an agreement with Conmebol, the South American confederation, which could prelude the participation of its national team in the competition.
This is the equivalent of our Euro… in the qualifiers in which Israel participates since its federation belongs to the European confederation, UEFA – the team, third in its group, did not manage to qualify for the edition 2024 after the play-offs.
In the midst of the war between the Jewish state and the Palestinian movement Hamas, such an agreement seems both preposterous and indicative of the extreme “geopolitization” of sport in recent years. International relations are projected into the world of football, even if it looks like a parallel universe when the president of Conmebol says that this sport “connects cultures, regardless of geographic distance, and can contribute to peace”.
New continents
Common sense is as disrupted as geography by the increasing “deterritorialization” of competitions. Since 1993, the Copa América has invited two to four member selections from the confederation of North America, Central America and the Caribbean, Concacaf. Japan (1999 and 2019) and Qatar (2019) even participated. And this year it is being organized for the second time in the United States, next June and July.
South American football wants to shine outside its territory among the North American diasporas and on markets richer than its own, but also, therefore, well beyond. While optimizing broadcasting rights. However, these commercial and media objectives are mainly pursued by Europeans, whose clubs organize lucrative summer tours on the new continents conquered by the king of sport: Asia, North America and the Middle East.
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This desire for expansion has also been reflected in the organization abroad of “Super Cups”, which pit the winners of the championship and the National Cup against each other. This season, Saudi Arabia hosted the Spanish and Italian versions, the French traveled to Canada, Morocco, Tunisia, the United States, China or… Israel, in 2021 and 2022.
The Spanish and English leagues even want to organize matches of their championships in the United States or Asia – there was also talk of a Monaco-Olympique Lyonnais in China two years ago. They are inspired by the North American basketball leagues (NBA) or American football (NFL) which relocate certain matches to Europe.
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2024-04-15 16:30:07
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