Contrary to the pattern of the recent group-team tournaments, the fun is very much present in Euro 2020. Strong matches between strong teams, knockout stages seeing the holders and world champions bid farewell, new Italy and Spain Enrique, a lot of action and a lot of noise, a lot of media services and even Interactive games, along with a long-awaited audience since the cursed pandemic hit the planet.
On the other side of the planet, another continental tournament is played, the Copa America, the forum that everyone awaits among 10 teams that struggle every year to complete the legal quorum for their lists.
Everyone knows the endless fun in Latin countries. Our experiences with the last editions of this competition have led us to discover new sports that can be practiced on the football field.
A huge difference, you do not need to stay up at dawn to catch it, as it appears in very primitive pictures, for example, Euro 2020 saw 123 goals scored in the first 44 matches, and you can simply know the average number of goals per match, the rate scored in minutes, and even the number of goals scored in space Specific time in all matches, all with one click on one page.
On the other hand, the Copa America saw 46 goals in its first 20 matches, and we know that because we collected them manually. (1)
When we talk about the Copa America there are always some general problems, such as the time differences that throw the most important matches into the early hours of the morning, and these cannot be blamed or resolved, no one can argue with the longitude.
There is a problem with the weakness of the first rounds, which is almost usual in most of the combined tournaments as well, and there is also the quality of the ball itself, and this is honestly not the problem of the organizers, but the problem of the participants in the first place.
But this year in particular, the Copa America exaggerated a little and brought up two new problems. The second is its strange system, which we will discuss later. The first, very simply, is that the tournament should not have been played in the first place.
Going back a year, this tournament was scheduled to be played in Colombia and Argentina in 2020, but like all similar international and continental projects such as the Euro and the Olympic Games, it has been postponed by a year thanks to the pandemic.
In April 2021, anti-government demonstrations erupted in Colombia, and due to the difficulty of controlling the situation, the Colombian government submitted a request to postpone the Copa America to November, and just imagine what European clubs would do about their stars if the South American Football Confederation “CONMEBOL” agreed. On this demand Alkhazbali.
Naturally, CONMEBOL rejected this absurdity and decided to withdraw the organization from Colombia.
(2)
According to the description of the Continental Confederation, offers to participate in Argentina poured out the honor of organizing, but on May 30, 2021, Argentina lost this honor as well, and thanks again to the pandemic, as the country of silver has the fifth worst explosion of the Corona virus in the world, with 76 daily cases out of Every 100,000 people, with a total of more than 34,000 cases per day, to bring the country into a strict lockdown and a complete ban on all non-essential travel activities.
(3)
It's okay, there is still plenty of time to secure a new host instead of canceling or postponing the tournament again, as the expected launch date of the tournament is two weeks away from the date of the organization's withdrawal from Argentina!
We commend here the speedy action of CONMEBOL and its announcement of Brazil as a new host. It is true that it does not have the same rapid spread of the virus in recent days, but it is only the third most global country in terms of the number of infections with nearly 18.5 million cases, and the second most record of deaths with more than half a million victims, It is also the second most infected country at the moment, with nearly 1.3 million cases.
The CONMEBOL board of directors looked at these numbers and decided: Yes, it is Brazil.
(4)
(CONMEBOL Copa America opening message: Thank you to all the great heroes fighting against COVID-19 on all fronts)
Before this epic, Qatar and Australia were supposed to participate as guests of this year's tournament, but they had to apologize because of the pandemic as well, and you can't blame them honestly, they did well to escape before getting involved in all these events.
CONMEBOL tried to invite more guests but of course failed, and here, do you remember the reasons for choosing Brazil?
Almost the same thing happened. (5)
The South American Football Association thought, for some reason, that a 10-team group stage with eight qualifications to the quarter-finals would be a good idea, surprising us with one of its worst inventions of the modern era.
If you see the slightest bit of competition in a World Cup qualifier played by 10 teams that qualify for 5, or a continental championship played by 12 teams in 3 groups that qualify for 8, here is the new magic formula: 8 out of 10.
Damn those who invented football.
(Cristóbal Syria)
The question throughout this boring role was never who would qualify, but who would be the laughingstock! While Switzerland ignites the globe by eliminating France, the most exciting question in Latin America was the prospects of Uruguay dropping to fourth place and colliding with Brazil in the quarter-finals if they lost to Paraguay, which did not happen.
But this is always the equation. More matches means more money, even if this means emptying the first round of all its matches from its meaning. 20 matches are worth nothing but the exit of Venezuela and Bolivia, only to add 4 matches in the quarter-finals, perhaps. Just imagine if this group stage qualifies directly to the semi-finals, which means that the qualification of one of the Uruguay and Chile teams will be at stake, which means that the teams of Argentina and Brazil will be forced to take a higher degree of seriousness, so do not convince us that one of them played while he was afraid Failing to collect 4 points from 4 matches, while Ecuador qualified with a third point thanks to its first goal against Brazil on its soil since the beginning of creation, as Issam El Shawali sang!
We really feel what Shawali felt, just as we feel every commentator is compelled to sell these matches and wake up the already drowsy fans thanks to the timing factor, let alone the quality of the matches, and in the absence of the mass attendance that Konmebol would have opened the doors for him if it were not completely impossible, what The real value of killing the viability of the first round and adding another match to the already crowded star schedule?
Just imagine a championship without Messi and Neymar, imagine?
Collective appeals to cancel the tournament due to the current health conditions, public objections from the players and official appeals from the World Leagues Forum, the Brazilian mayor of Rio de Janeiro confirms 9 days before the start of the tournament that he will not hesitate to cancel any match if the pandemic situation worsens, even if the final match in the maracana.
All of that, but "joy will be held on time", in the end.
(6) (7)
people slandering Copa America for having no round of 16 when South America doesn't even have 16 countries pic.twitter.com/arsV3YPoUz
— ym🏴 (@KieranCFC88) June 29, 2021
Always, and forever, this is the machine that drives football around the world, a machine without any kind of logical thinking except when it comes to making money, the difference is that some seem more fit and civilized, like Euro 2020, in which the greatness of medical safety measures was demonstrated in saving Christian Eriksen, despite It allowed playing in a country that does not require the wearing of face masks such as Hungary, and is about to play the final in Britain, a country suffering a viral explosion of one of the most dangerous strains of Corona, despite the public objections of the Italian and German governments.
(8)
Players complain about crowded tables, but FIFA plans to increase the number of World Cup teams to 48 teams.
The entire world does not give great importance to a tournament like the Club World Cup, but FIFA plans to increase it to 32 teams.
The big clubs are suffering because of the Corona pandemic, so they plan to isolate from everyone, and establish the Super League, the follies were many, and the purpose was one, and it is certainly not football.
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Sources
Euro 2020 statistics from the UEFA website
Withdrawing the Copa America from Colombia
Withdrawing the organization of the Copa America from Argentina
Corona virus infection numbers
Copa America without guests
Objections to the establishment of the Copa America in the current circumstances
The mayor of Rio de Janeiro says about the possibility of canceling matches
The Italian and German governments fear the Euro 2020 final will be held at Wembley