By Paul Nicholson
May 16 – Wasting no time following the announcement two weeks ago that the Copa America Centenario will be played in the US in 2016, CONCACAF and South American Football Confederation Conmebol have unveiled the tournament logo and named their first broadcast partner, Univision as the US Spanish-language television rights holder.
The Centennial Cup America is the first time the historic South American championship, the older international tournament in the world, has been played outside of the Conmebol region. It is being seen as an important opportunity and a unique occasion to unite football from across the whole of America. It also represents the most important international sporting event to come to North American since the Winter Olympics in 2002.
The US and Mexico will have automatic entry to the competition with four other national teams from CONCACAF joining the 10 Conmebol federations, making a 16-team format.
CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb said: “With this vibrant logo revealed to the public for the first time, we can begin to concretely envision the excitement of the Centennial Cup America both on and off the field, as football fans start the countdown to 2016.”
Univision hosted the event revealing the logo on-air. Wematch principal Mariano Jinkis, the commercial rights holder for the tournament, said: ”It’s truly a pleasure to see this logo disseminated for the first time via the airwaves of Univision, a household name in Spanish-language entertainment throughout the Americas… we look forward to working cooperatively with Univision and our advertisers and sponsors to deliver unique 360-degree fan experiences on and off screen.”
The logo design was created by England-based firm The Works, Ltd., as “a modern interpretation of the historic Copa America trophy, reflecting a full century of heritage of an event which now looks ahead towards a new, bright frontier.”
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