United States Will Host Copa America 2024 in a New Format

Copa America is a competition that is synonymous with football for Latin American countries or better known as the Commebol zone.

However, things are different for the upcoming 2024 Copa America. This cannot be separated from the decision of the two confederations in the Americas, namely Central America, North America and the Caribbean ( CONCACAF Zone ) and South America ( COMMEBOL Zone ) to join.

The United States will host this competition. This also implies that Ecuador has canceled hosting the Copa America due to security reasons.

As an illustration at the beginning, this competition consists of 10 participants from the COMMEBOL Zone and 6 participants from the CONCACAF Zone.

For the 6 participants who will appear in the 2024 Copa America who come from the CONCACAF zone will first undergo a qualifying round in their zone so that the 6 teams that qualify are eligible to join the 10 countries from the COMMBEBOL zone

That means that apart from merging the two confederations, the Copa America will also be held for the first time with 16 participants because traditionally in the past the competition was only attended by 12 participants.

Reporting from ESPN, the Venue for this event will use the same stadium as the stadium that will be used in the 2026 World Cup tournament where the United States was also chosen as one of the biggest soccer organizers in the world.

The merging of the two Confederations has indeed been discussed before.

"This is a form of joint partnership to support the growth of football in both the men's and women's football categories. And this partnership will greatly benefit both confederations" _Victor Montagliani, President of CONCACAF, reported by AFP (28/01)

At the Copa America before the merger of the confederations, Argentina managed to come out as champions after being able to beat Brazil with a score of 1-0 in the final through Angel Di Maria's single goal.

With the joining of the two Confederations, it is believed that the upcoming 2024 Copa America competition will be more exciting and far more elite than the previous edition.

It will be interesting to wait whether the amalgamation of the Confederation will be able to produce new champions or even the old occupants will still hold power.