Lionel Messi and Argentina will be targeting to end the country’s 23-year title drought when the Copa America Centenario kicks off tomorrow after a troubled build-up marred by corruption allegations which threatened to derail the event.
One hundred years after Uruguay clinched the inaugural four-team South American championship in Argentina, 16 teams from across the Americas are gathered in the United States for a special one-off edition of the tournament.
The three-week festival of football gets under way at the Levi’s Stadium in California tomorrow, when the United States face Colombia at the home of the San Francisco 49ers American football team. The tournament will conclude with a final at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on June 26, drawing a line under what is arguably the biggest tournament held in the United States since the 1994 World Cup.
Billed as a celebration of football across the Americas, 10 South American teams and six teams from the CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean) region make up the field. For organisers, the mere fact that the tournament is taking place at all is something of a triumph. For several months last year the Copa faced an uncertain future after the arrest and indictment for corruption of several officials from South America and CONCACAF responsible for dreaming up the tournament.
When plans for the tournament were launched at a glitzy event in Miami in 2014, CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb stood proudly alongside South American federation (CONMEBOL) chief Eugenio Figueredo.
“The American continent may have been discovered in 1492, but I can’t imagine a better way to unite this continent than with football,” Webb said. Yet if prosecutors have their way, both men may soon be united behind bars. Webb and Figueredo were among several officials arrested in Switzerland in May 2015 as part of the US-led corruption investigation which ultimately led to the sensational downfall of FIFA President Sepp Blatter.
With impeccable timing, Webb is due to appear in a New York courtroom tomorrow – the day of the opening match – to face sentencing for his role in the scandal. Figueredo, 84, was extradited to Uruguay from Switzerland last December and also faces criminal prosecution. Both Figueredo and Webb – as well as former CONMEBOL chief Nicolas Leoz – are accused of pocketing millions of dollars in bribes linked to the award of media rights for the tournament, part of a scam dubbed a “World Cup of Fraud”.
The sleazy background to the competition threatened to take the shine off an event which will bring together some of the world’s best players. Messi and Argentina will be aiming to win the country’s first major title since the 1993 Copa America after a series of recent near-misses.
The Argentines lost both the 2014 World Cup final and the 2015 Copa America in Chile. Messi, due in Spain this week to attend his trial for tax fraud, says it is time Argentina’s talented players delivered. “It has been a very long time since Argentina has won anything, and this group came very close in the World Cup and at the last Copa America,” he told Sports Illustrated on the eve of the tournament. “I think we deserve to be champions of an important competition.”
Argentina open their campaign against Chile in Santa Clara next Monday. Panama and Bolivia complete Group D.
The United States meanwhile will aim to build on their encouraging performance at the 2014 World Cup, when they reached the knockout round, by progressing from a “Group of Death” which includes Colombia, Costa Rica and Paraguay.
Five-time World Cup winners Brazil will be favoured to safely navigate Group B, where they face Ecuador, Haiti and Peru. The Brazilians open against Ecuador at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl on Saturday – scene of their victory at the 1994 World Cup final.
Mexico and Uruguay will be expected to progress from Group C, with Jamaica and Venezuela completing the field.

Messi’s ex-advisers absolve him in tax fraud trial
Barcelona: Lionel Messi’s former tax advisers came out in support of the football star yesterday as his trial for alleged fraud continued in Barcelona, saying he never handled his wealth management.
Messi, 28, and his father Jorge Horacio Messi are accused of using fake companies in Belize and Uruguay to avoid paying taxes on 4.16 million euros ($4.6 million) of his income earned through the sale of his image rights from 2007-09.
The trial kicked off in Barcelona on Tuesday, and the five-time World Player of the Year himself will take the stand today before joining his Argentina teammates for the Copa America in the United States.
He “didn’t take any decisions and I didn’t see anyone consulting him for anything,” said Angel Juarez, one of the partners at law firm Juarez Veciana which managed Messi’s tax affairs at the time.
“I don’t know if any of my correspondence has been included in the case, but they will see that Lionel Messi does not appear in any of it,” added Inigo de Loyola, another partner and Juarez’s brother.
Juarez was responsible for creating several companies in Uruguay, then considered a tax haven. Messi’s father had hired the law firm as he had ongoing disputes with his then adviser who was managing the footballer’s image rights through a company based in Belize -- and wanted him out.
The Barcelona firm decided to create a mirror structure in Uruguay. Jenbril was 100 percent owned by Messi and he poured his image rights earnings in there, and Frosyl was where his father deposited his commissions as the player’s agent. These companies are the main focus of the investigation.
Juarez acknowledged in court that it was all about getting “maximum value” out of Messi’s earnings from endorsement deals that included Banco Sabadell, Danone, Adidas, Pepsi-Cola, Procter & Gamble and the Kuwait Food Company. “Uruguay was a place where this income was not taxable,” he said. But he added that the structure was legal and that he had explained all this to Messi’s father. Both partners, who stopped working for Messi shortly after the investigation started, were however unable to explain why the player’s firm in Uruguay failed to appear in his wealth tax declaration.
The Barcelona forward and his defence team have long argued that the player’s father handled his finances without reporting to him, and that the striker was not aware of any wrongdoing. Both Messi and his father have been charged with three counts of tax fraud.
Spanish prosecutors are seeking a jail sentence of 22-and-a-half months for them if they are found guilty, plus fines equivalent to the amount that was allegedly defrauded. But any such sentence would likely be suspended as is common in Spain for first offences carrying a sentence of less than two years. After his court appearance, Messi will jet off to the United States, where Argentina take on Copa America defending champions Chile in their first game of the tournament in California on Monday. Both Barcelona and the Argentine Football Association have supported the player, who is loudly cheered whenever he appears on the pitch at the Spanish club’s Camp Nou stadium.
Barcelona managers have even insinuated that there is a conspiracy to tar the image of their star player.