The history of Copa America

If you ask me to describe Copa America in one simple sentence, I would say ‘Copa America is South American soccer championships’. Copa America is the biggest South American football championships that are played in Latin America.

It is probably the oldest championship in South America and the oldest regional championship in the world as well.

There’s a historical truth attached to Copa America championships.

Copa America soccer championships started in Argentina to commemorate its Independence Day celebrations. Though it was not called Copa America then, it was known as South American championships. It was held in Buenos Aires for the first time on 2nd of July 1916.

As time progressed, South American championships gained immense popularity in the South American continent, all the ten nations from across South America leave no stone unturned to take a dig at the South American cup.

There are two more teams that add up from the neighboring countries to complete the format of 12 teams that play in the Copa America championships.

Origin of Copa America

The South American championships restarted in 1975 after a break of eight years. It was named Copa America cup. Certain changes took place in the year 1975.

Since there was a considerable gap, organizers got confused to give hosting rights to a particular nation.

They decided to implement play formats of home and away games. The games proceeded in the home and away format till 1983, when the South American federation, CONMEBOL, decided to give hosting rights to each of the ten members of federation on a rotation basis.

Few important features of Copa America championships

• The most remarkable aspect of Copa America is that no participating countries had to go through qualifying process. All the ten nations qualify for the tournament straight away without undergoing qualification process.
• Initially, Copa America championships were played every two years. Since 2007, it was decided that Copa America cup would be played every four years.
• Due to political uncertainties in the South American region, Copa America championships were disrupted in 1967, and no play was possible till 1975. Copa American championships resumed in 1975 again.
• Uruguay won the first championships in 1916, when they defeated host Argentina. It is quite amazing that Uruguay continues to impress everybody in Copa America championships even now. They had in fact, won the Copa America championships 14 times, along with Argentina. Brazil lies in the third place with eight championship wins.

Copa American championships have flourished incredibly right from the time it started. According to Fifa, Copa America is the third biggest soccer championships in the world.