When the 2024 Copa America was scheduled to be held in the USA, it was always going to be looked upon as the precursor to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. And in that aspect, CONMEBOL and USA in general have thoroughly failed.
From the condition of the pitches to the quality of cameras in the stadium. The seemingly “pre-historic” VAR systems in place and even the referees in the competition have come under scrutiny. Recently, Marcelo Bielsa had some strong words to say about CONMEBOL in his post-match press conference after his Uruguayan side bowed out of the Semifinals after losing against Colombia. While the match itself was feisty, the highlight of the match happened after the game concluded.
There was a breakout amongst Colombian and Uruguayan fans in the stands where the families of the Uruguayan players were present. And so, apparently to defend their families, some players from La Celeste, most notably Darwin Nunez jumped into the stands and had to take part in the physical altercations.
While other shortcomings were technical problems and issues that can be solved with better technology and quality personnel, whatever happened at the end of the Colombia vs Uruguay match was a matter of security. And that’s something that should never be compromised as it concerns the well-being of fellow human beings. This wasn’t the only time Copa America had security concerns though.
The Final of the Copa America between Argentina and Colombia was clouded with security concerns which caused the match to be delayed by more than an hour. The issue broke out when some Colombian fans started sneaking into the match without tickets and breached security. This made other fans from both the Colombian and Argentine sides follow in pursuit, causing a massive security breach.
The security at the stadium just couldn’t do enough to contain all of them and had to basically push all the fans out of the stadium with just minutes to go for the all-important match to start. This also included those fans who had bought the tickets with their hard-earned money but had to miss the start of the match due to the security breach. Should this be acceptable at a Continental Championship Final? Especially in the USA, a country that will be hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup in just 2 years. The answer is NO!
If anyone, it’s CONMEBOL who are at fault, with all the concerns around the quality of the tournament they need to seriously mend their ways and be quick with it too. It’s highly unacceptable that a small group of fans take away the enjoyment of a larger group of fans who have been waiting to experience the joy football brings with it. While the USA won’t have a problem in being in line with the technical aspect of things by 2026, regulation of procedures and the security around and inside the stadiums needs to be upgraded and brought up to the standards where such incidents don’t happen again.
