CONMEBOL, the football association charged with organising the Copa America 2024 have implemented a new rule in this year edition of the tournament that makes them look bad compared to their EUROPEAN counterpart.
According to the association, there would be not extra 30 minutes in the knockout stages in an event of a full-time draw. That means a match that doesn’t have a winner at full-time would go to penalties straight away.
This rule was not established before the competition began. It was after the Copa America group stage ended that they decided to introduce this rule, raising the eyebrows of many football fans who alleged the competition has been corrupted.
While some football fans believe that this rule seems to be in favour of Lionel Messi’s Argentina who have not lost a single penalty shootout since 2021’s Copa America. However, this argument is rooted in fallacy as this rule doesn’t guarantee Argentina’s winning the tournament for second time in a row. This is not the first time we have seen this rule implemented at the highest level of football.
What to think about Copa America rule
We have seen this rule implemented in English football in it’s knockout competitions like the FA Cup and Carabao Cup a few years ago. No one seemed to accuse the English FA of any corruption that time, and they shouldn’t do that with CONMEBOL.
Even UEFA has undergone some changes in the last few years, including suspending home/away games during the 2019/2020 UEFA champion league. Does that make Bayern Munich illegitimate winners of the competition? No.
Player fatigue and injuries have been on the rise in the past year, and that might have been the reason for this Copa America rule in 2024.
There are football fans who think Copa America can’t be compared to EUROS due to the rule change. But without the rule change, EUROS is still more competitive than Copa America. It’s as simple as that. But it doesn’t make Copa America a corrupt or an inferior competition.
