December 16 – Organisers of the 2016 Copa America Centenario have announced that the final will be played at the 82,000 capacity MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The controversial tournament, which acted as a trigger to the biggest corruption investigation ever seen in world sport over bribery and money laundering accusations centred around its commercial rights, will be played in 10 venues across the US – Boston (Gillette Stadium), Chicago (Soldier Field), Houston (NRG Stadium), Los Angeles (Rose Bowl), New York (MetLife Stadium), Orlando (Orlando Citrus Bowl Stadium), Philadelphia (Lincoln Financial Field), Phoenix (University of Phoenix Stadium), San Francisco (Levi’s Stadium) and Seattle (CenturyLink Field).
Copa America is the oldest national team tournament in the world, and this is the first time it has been staged outside of the South American confederation (CONMEBOL), though other non-South American nations have frequently been invited to play with Mexico in particular being a regular participant.
The 2016 tournament will feature the 10 CONMEBOL teams and six teams from CONCACAF. From CONCACAF the US and Mexico were ‘pre-qualified’, while Costa Rica qualified as the Copa Centroamericana winners and Jamaica as the Caribbean Cup winners. Panama will play off against Cuba, and Trinidad and Tobago against Haiti for the two remaining places on January 8 in Panama City.
The MetLife Stadium, home to NFL sides New York Giants and New York Jets, was opened in 2010 and has hosted football before including Argentina vs Brazil which drew an 81,994 crowd. The stadium has also hosted CONCACAF Gold Cup matches.
The Copa America Centenario schedule overlaps UEFA’s quadrennial Euros national team tournament, to be held in France in 2016. The US tournament will be played June 3-26, the Euros run from June10 to July 10. Each of the US venues will host at least three matches/
The full schedule will be released tomorrow (December 17). Fans ticket registration is open at www.CA2016.com.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734846052labto1734846052ofdlr1734846052owedi1734846052sni@n1734846052osloh1734846052cin.l1734846052uap1734846052