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Copa comes up empty again
By Simon Hooper, CNNSI.com LONDON -- Covering the Copa America in Paraguay two years ago, I had an opportunity to witness first hand the chaos that seems to curse the oldest international tournament in world football. Then, as now, the fate of the South American championship had been thrown into doubt by political crisis and concerns over the host nation's ability to stage it safely and successfully. A few months before the Copa, Paraguay's popular vice-president Luis Argana had been assassinated on the streets of Asuncion. Opposition politicians accused ruling president Raul Cubas and his close ally General Lino Oviedo of plotting Argana's murder. Faced with political meltdown and swelling popular protests, Cubas resigned and Oviedo -- who had been responsible for organizing the Copa -- fled to exile in Argentina. The tournament survived the upheaval, but not unscathed. Paraguay's popular goalkeeper and national captain Jose Luis Chilavert refused to play, claiming that as long as people there couldn't afford to eat, his country could not afford the luxury of hosting the event. Heavily armed troops policed the streets and the stadiums, a constant reminder of the fragility of Paraguay's nascent democracy. As the Copa staggered on, the ticketing system proved hopelessly inadequate. Thousands of tickets slipped into the hands of touts and out of the financial reach of ordinary Paraguayans. Match venues were often rearranged at short notice, arousing the ire of fans and journalists, while shabby stadiums and the damp Paraguayan winter hardly provided a suitable backdrop against which to showcase the best of South American football. Unhappily, the lessons of Paraguay have not been heeded by CONMEBOL, the South American football confederation. Colombia's unsuitability to host the event was sadly predictable. With the country's government and FARC rebels caught up in a seemingly endless civil war -- and the country's notoriety for narcotic trafficking, kidnapping and bloodshed -- CONMEBOL's bold plan to rotate the Copa around the continent has never looked more naïve. Colombian president Andres Pastrana had called on the country's rebels to help make the Copa a "Cup of peace," but that sentiment alone was hardly enough to assuage security fears after a spate of car bombings in Bogota, Medellin and Cali in May left 12 people dead. Chilavert's comments on fixing society first ring even truer for Colombia 2001 than for Paraguay '99. The kidnapping of Hernan Mejia Campuzano, the vice president of the Colombian Football Federation, combined with threats against the Argentine squad, finally seems to have shaken CONMEBOL's blinkered faith in Colombia's suitability as a host nation. But at this late stage it remains to be seen whether another South American nation possesses the infrastructure to bear the burden of hosting the tournament at such short notice. Sadly, the Copa, which dates back to 1910, no longer even stands up to scrutiny as a football event. With South America's top players inevitably drawn to the wealthier European clubs, more and more are reluctant to sacrifice their summer holidays and risk injury for a tournament that falls far short of the organizational and security standards of the European game. South America's mammoth World Cup qualifying system, which sees all 10 nations playing each other home and away, has further devalued the Copa. Squeezed between the qualifiers, even Colombia and champion Brazil had named weakened squads to focus on the more pressing concern of securing 2002 berths. If, where and when the Copa goes ahead, one thing is certain: Rivaldo, Gabriel Batistuta, Juan Sebastian Veron and Romario will not be there. Whether anyone else will be remains to be seen.
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