Available rights
Traffic holds the worldwide broadcast, sponsorship and promotion rights for all the games of the event. All games are broadcast live.
Next edition: 02 July to 24 July 2011, Argentina
Last edition: 2007, Venezuela
Frequency: Every 4 years
Duration: 3 weeks
Number of matches: 26
Number of teams: 12 national teams
Participating teams: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela play in every edition. Two extra National Teams were also invited: Mexico and Japan.
History
Copa América is the leading soccer tournament in Latin America and, as such, it has an enthusiastic worldwide crowd of supporters. The competition is equivalent to the Eurocup, and includes 10 South-American countries: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Equador, Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela. It has the same format as the World Cup, which means that all teams play a group stage, and later face each other on the playoffs. It usually lasts 20 days.
Since 1993, in addition to the 10 South-American countries, two countries from other continents take part in the tournament as guests. One should remember that Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay dominate the world soccer scenario, and together those three South-American countries won nine World Cups.
Copa America is a traditional competition, and was created before the 1930 World Cup. Previously known as the “South-American Tournament of Teams”, the first edition was organized in 1916. Many players have shown their talents in this tournament. In the past, Brazilian soccer stars, Pelé and Garrincha, and the Argentine stars Di Stefano and Diego Maradona, made the difference with memorable goals. Uruguay’s Pedro Rocha and Paraguay’s Romerito also showed their abilities in previous competitions.
More recently, Copa America had the participation of talented players such as Romário (ex-Barcelona), Batistuta (ex- Fiorentina), Ronaldo (Milan), Adriano and Crespo (Internazionale) and Ronaldinho (Barcelona).
The most recent edition was in July 2007, in Venezuela. New stars such as Brazilian Robinho, and Argentinian Lionel Messi, received standing ovations in stadiums throughout Venezuela. Brazil won the championship for the second time in a row, beating Argentina in the finals.
