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Back in May, we reported about CONMEBOL and CONCACAF creating a special tournament that will bring Copa America – and some of the best players in the world – to the United States.
Well, it's officially happening. The two governing bodies and FIFA announced Friday that the FIFA executive committee has voted in favor and officially added the Centennial Cup to the FIFA events calendar.
The point of the tournament is to celebrate Copa America’s 100th year. Previosly, we reported that it was odd that CONMEBOL, CONCACAF and FIFA are commemorating the oldest national team tournament in football history by playing games in the United States. But hey, we’re not ones to argue with CONMEBOL on this one.
The cool thing about the tournament besides the fact that it’s in the U.S. is that national teams will have the ability to call on players from any club to represent their countries, allowing countries to field the best teams possible.
The field includes Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. On top of that, six teams from CONCACAF will participate. The U.S., Mexico and Costa Rica are all automatic qualifiers.
Isn’t this great? Another tournament added by FIFA to help pass the time until World Cup 2018. On top of that, we get to see all the world's greats on our soil. Lionel Messi, Neymar, James Rodriguez, Arturo Vidal and Luis Suarez’s hungry style of play (see what I did there?) will all be in America.
Lionel Messi and Neymar will be in uniform for Brazil and Argentina come 2016. Clubs must release their best players. (Photo:@messi10facts | Twitter)
The stadiums up for the bidding process are as follows:
- The Rose Bowl - Pasedena,California
- Stanford Stadium - Palo Alto, California
- Metlife Stadium - East Rutherford, New Jersey
- RFK Memorial Stadium - Washington, D.C
- NRG Stadium - Houston, Texas
- Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium - Orlando,Florida
- Sun Life Stadium - Miami Gardens, Florida
Not a bad set of stadiums, aside (in our opinion) from Metlife Stadium due to its artificial turf. They’ll likely lay sod over the turf (which again makes us scratch our heads at FIFA's decision to play the 2015 Women's World Cup on turf), which never poses good conditions.
That’s a small complaint in a pot of something pretty perfect. Tickets are not yet on sale, but we’ll let you know when they are.
