Copa America The History of the World's Oldest Continental Football Tournament

The Copa's fascinating story from its origins on the banks of the River Plate to Richarlison's last goal of the 2019 final in the Maracana.

Di Stefano, Pele, Maradona, Neymar and Messi are just some of the players to have graced a tournament that pre-dates the World Cup by 14 years and the European Championships by half a century. On the pitch, there are fist fights, dubious refereeing decisions and sublime football. Off it, there is a South American backdrop of war, military coups, earthquakes, dictators, corruption and Marxist guerrillas.

Through interviews with historians and former players, Copa America places the tournament in that turbulent history, looking, for example, at the contribution of black players in the early editions, and the long shadow cast by military juntas in the 1970s and 80s. The Copa sunk into oblivion in those dark years, but has bounced back to become one of the greatest football tournaments in the world.

Gideon Long has worked as a journalist for over 25 years, mostly in South America. He has covered four World Cups for Reuters, as well as Copa Americas, Olympic Games and Champions League matches. He worked for the BBC in Chile and is now the Financial Times correspondent for the Andean region, based in Colombia. He has twice won the Leonardo Henrichsen prize for journalism, awarded by the Chilean Foreign Press Association.