When the United States decided to take the top spot in world football after losing to Russia and Qatar to host the World Cup, it brought in the FBI and its top prosecutors to dismantle the corruption network that had turned the sport’s top bodies into a veritable mafia. Once Blatter, Platini, Leoz and their henchmen had fallen, it put itself at the service of the new order, which was more than enough for it. Infantino gave it the 2026 World Cup, Domínguez gave it the 2024 Copa América and Ceferin the organisation of the 2025 Club World Cup. The full reward, in order to stop the raid.
Having become the new linchpin of world football – with Leo Messi playing in his league and David Beckham becoming King Midas – the real challenge began for the successors of Bill Clinton, the honorary director of his Federation and the driving force behind the original failed candidacy and the subsequent revenge. And it all started in the worst possible way.
For the time being, the organization of the event was delegated to CONMEBOL, which showed the world its worst face in a poor, lackluster opening ceremony, crowned in an unusual way with a religious sermon by the questioned pastor Emilio Agüero, a personal friend and political partner of Paraguayan Alejandro Domínguez, president of CONMEBOL. The opening was untidy and dull, far from the spectacle of the Super Bowl.
From then on, the Copa America went from one setback to another. If the organizers wanted to justify the presence of the CONCACAF teams on the field, they only demonstrated that the gap between South America and the rest of the continent remains abysmal. The decisions and appointments of referees, the precarious state of the fields, the television broadcasts, the difficulties in showing full venues and the fights in the stands, caused by the free consumption of alcohol, were widening the gap in comparison with the Euro Cup, which is being played simultaneously.
The elimination of the American team from the group stage was a difficult record: never before had a host team left the competition so early. The local team was a weak competitive expression, despite the confidence placed in it. Mexico, the other Concacaf power, confirmed its terrible form and also returned home early, hitting the organization where it hurts the most: at the ticket office.
Hopes are still pinned on Lionel Messi, the talisman of the new leaders, who raised his voice in 2019 to ask Conmebol to stop favouring Brazil in fixtures and refereeing, a message that many impartial observers welcomed. Today there is a consensus that the dice in Asunción, the headquarters of the organisation, are loaded in favour of the Albiceleste.
And a decade after the great crisis in football, things seem to be the same: presidents who have remained in power forever, machines oiled with money, dubious refereeing and rigorous sanctions for the weakest. And, what is worse, with decisions that do not seem sensible, such as organizing the next World Cups in multiple venues. If this examination of the United States raises many doubts, the idea that there will be five “organizing” countries in 2030 seems increasingly far-fetched.
The Copa America is faltering. The credibility and cunning of the new leaders are also faltering. The first great test of the new era was a failure and only Messi playing and winning the final in Miami can remedy it. Everyone knows it.
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