Morales: Bolivia to host 2015 Copa America
Reuters - Wednesday 28 April 2010, 01:09
LA PAZ, April 27 (Reuters) - Bolivia will stage the 2015
Copa America if Brazil opt against doing so because they are
hosting the World Cup and Olympic Games the years before and
after, Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Tuesday.
Morales's remark at a sports event in his country
contradicts a recent agreement that Chile would stage the
world's oldest championship for national teams if Brazil, whose
turn it is, opted out.
"In the next three or four years we (in South America) will
receive international events, the Olympics ... the World Cup
and the Copa America championship which will be in Bolivia in
2015," Morales said.
A spokesman for the South American Football Confederation
(CSF), however, told Reuters they had received no formal
request from the Bolivian federation.
"There is no official request to the 'Conmebol' (CSF) on
the part of the Bolivian federation," CSF executive secretary
Francisco Figueredo said.
The CSF will meet this week at its Paraguayan headquarters
in Asuncion to establish whether Brazil will remain the Copa
America host nation in 2015.
"Any association can make their request at the meeting but
so far there is none," the spokesman added.
Brazil had looked favourably on Chile as a replacement
before a massive earthquake on February 27, which devastated large
areas of southern and central regions and killed nearly 500
people, cast doubts on the idea.
The South American championship, now more commonly known by
the name of its trophy, has been rotated around the 10 member
countries since 1987 starting with Argentina whose turn comes
around again next year.
Brazil last staged the tournament in 1989, Chile in 1991
and Bolivia in 1997. The most recent was in 2007 in Venezuela
where Brazil beat Argentina in the final.