Copa America 2024: When money is more important than a serious spectacle

Chaos in the final, appalling pitches, delays, disastrous security and even an unregulated half-time break are just some of the major shortcomings of the Copa America 2024, where business interests overshadowed sport.

The Copa America 2024 will be remembered not only for Argentina's 16th title (the most in history), but also for the organisational disaster of the world's most important tournament after the UEFA European Championship, both in economic terms and, to some extent, in terms of fan passion and following.

This edition got off to a bad start for football fans. Firstly, it was once again business as usual, with the tournament being held in the United States, a country that is not a member of CONMEBOL and one of the six CONCACAF nations invited. The US, with no footballing tradition, was not used to dealing with the passionate (sometimes excessive) enthusiasm of South American fans - "a different breed in the world".

There were also some unusual match-ups, with four groups in which only two teams could progress, but the main contenders were not allowed to meet until the final (the idea was that Argentina and Brazil would reach the final, and if they did not, Colombia would, to ensure interest in the grand final).

What was the aim of CONMEBOL president Alejandro Domínguez's approach? To secure the business and the millions, and to generate excitement two years before the 2026 World Cup, which will take place mainly in areas not traditionally known for football (apart from Latin Americans, football is much less popular among the average American, ranking fifth or sixth, to be generous).

Pushing and shoving in several matches, especially the final, was a constant feature of a Copa America in which players were not encouraged (if not directly banned) from expressing themselves in public.



The aftermath? Chaos at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium before the final, due to a lack of preparation on the part of the police and a lack of understanding of the "South American passion" for football, where "people will do anything" to see their idols. And when we say anything, we mean anything: there were groups of Colombians trying to get in through the air conditioning ducts. Absurd, irrational and unpredictable to the average North American, but not so much to those with a different football culture.

The last Copa America was also marred by a number of organisational blunders, including one involving football legend Lionel Messi. Security problems during the semi-final between Colombia and Uruguay, countries without proper training facilities such as Bolivia, whose complaints were ignored and who had to be publicly denounced by Argentine coach Marcelo Bielsa, who expressed his solidarity and blamed CONMEBOL for all the problems.



Eighty minutes of delay in a final to forget, not for the football but for everything that surrounded it. Minutes before kick-off, Argentine players such as Alexis MacAllister and Garnacho were more concerned about their families than the game. Even Liverpool's Englishman had to leave to help his mother.

"Alexis had to go out to let us in because he was worried. And he couldn't go on. I thought the game wouldn't be played because the players were trying to sort it out," his mother Silvina told the press.


The same thing had happened a few days earlier in Charlotte, but in the stands of Bank of America Stadium. "The players reacted like any human being would," said Uruguay coach Marcelo Bielsa. "When they attack your wife, your mother, your baby, your spouse, your sister, what do you do? Do you punish those who go to defend them?"

Meanwhile, the president of the Colombian Football Federation, Ramón Jesúrun, was arrested in Miami following an incident at the Copa America final on Sunday, according to a police report released on Monday.

Amid the chaos, unofficial reports suggest that the easiest solution was chosen. They lifted the turnstiles and let everyone in. Around 7,000 people entered without tickets, causing the stadium to collapse and preventing others, including Argentine journalists, from entering despite having the correct tickets, according to Argentine journalist Verónica Brunati (who experienced this first-hand) on social media X.



"Business is business" is a common phrase in the USA, which CONMEBOL has adopted as its guiding principle. At half-time, it didn't matter what was happening or that it meant violating the 15-minute break rule in football. Colombian pop singer Shakira put on a spectacular Super Bowl-style show that extended the half-time break to 25 minutes, ten more than the regulation time.

If a team is late, they are fined, but the organisation itself causes the delay to include the halftime show. A real absurdity. The penalty doesn't apply, of course, because it's the owner of the circus who forces everyone to follow suit.

Shakira's performance sparked controversy because just days earlier four coaches - Lionel Scaloni (Argentina), Marcelo Bielsa (Uruguay), Ricardo Gareca (Chile) and Fernando Batista (Venezuela) - had been suspended for one match and fined $15,000 for delaying their teams' return to the pitch by up to two minutes.

"When we came off in the 16th minute, we were fined," complained Batista, the Argentine coach of the Vinotinto.

"When the first half ends, it's not the time to start the 15-minute clock, it's when you get to the changing room," defended Peru coach Jorge Fossati.

Fossati claimed that "in some stadiums here (in the United States), the dressing room is about a kilometre away from the halfway line", another absurdity that will have to be addressed for the 2026 World Cup, which, although organised by FIFA, will share many of the same stadiums as the oldest national team tournament in history.



As if that were not enough, the pitches were designed for football, but American football, not soccer (as it is called in the USA). Despite the logic that an MLS match rarely fills such large stadiums, the primary American sport (American football) has different field dimensions.

Néstor Lorenzo also raised concerns about the size of the pitch at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, during the Colombia-Paraguay match: "The dimensions are quite small."

The state of the pitch was another issue. The grass had been laid with minimal notice and without "soldering", which meant that the ball did not roll as smoothly as it should on a well-maintained pitch.

After Argentina reached the final, which they won 1-0 against Colombia on Sunday, Lionel Messi commented on a complicated tournament with "very bad pitches" and "very difficult temperatures" due to the intense heat. Brazilian Vinicius Jr complained, without going into detail, about "the way CONMEBOL treats people".



World Cup winner Scaloni was the first coach to criticise the pitches. "Thank God we won, but you can't play football on that pitch," he said after Argentina's 2-0 win over Canada in the opening game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

"We've known for seven months that we were going to play here and only two days ago they changed the pitch from artificial to grass," questioned the two-time Copa America and Qatar 2022 winner.