06/10/2021 18:01
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 06/10/2021 18:06
The Supreme Court of Brazil reached the majority of six votes necessary to allow the Copa América to be played in the country on Thursday, thereby denying three appeals that asked to suspend the tournament due to the covid-19 pandemic.
The tournament, finally, will begin on Sunday with the duel between the host team and Venezuela.
The decision is now irreversible
, since the court has eleven members and the only six that have spoken so far have rejected the actions attempted by left-wing political parties and a metalworking union, which alleged that the tournament could not be held in a country where the that the pandemic continues uncontrolled.
In fact, according to the latest official data,
Brazil adds almost 480,000 deaths from coronavirus
, with an average of 1,727 deaths a day in the last two weeks, and according to specialists it is on the verge of another pandemic wave, which will coincide with the Copa América , which will last a month and will be inaugurated next Sunday.
The magistrates who have already ruled followed the opinion of one of the instructors of the case, Carmen Lucia Antunes, who underlined the jurisprudence already established by the Supreme Court regarding restrictions to contain the pandemic, which according to the national Constitution fall on the governors of each one of the 27 states of the country.
"It is up to them to define, enforce and control the protocols so that there is no 'copavirus', which is a source of infections and transmission of new strains," said the judge.
He also pointed out that local authorities, "if it were the case," could be held responsible in the future "for their administrative decisions" and the consequences that they eventually generate.
The only requirement is that a security protocol be presented
, which the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) has said will be similar to that of other tournaments that are held in Brazil and the entire region, according to which the delegations are kept in a rigid "bubbles", with matches played without an audience in the stands.
Thus, the Copa América will begin next Sunday with the ten teams divided into two groups: El A, with Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay;
and B, in which Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela were paired.
The sub-sites will be Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Cuiabá and Goiania, whose local authorities, according to the Supreme Court's decision, will be able to respond to the courts in case it is proven that the tournament somehow aggravated the country's health crisis.
Source: EFE