Brazil’s Supreme Court has ruled that the country can host the Copa America despite the coronavirus pandemic, clearing the way for the troubled football tournament to go ahead in three days.
In an extraordinary virtual session held on Thursday, a majority of the high court’s 11 justices decided against plaintiffs who argued the South American championships posed an unacceptable health risk.
Various judges, however, ordered the government to take additional safety measures.
“It falls to (state governors and mayors) to set the appropriate health protocols and ensure they are respected in order to avoid a ‘Copavirus’, with new infections and the emergence of new variants,” wrote Justice Carmen Lucia in her ruling.
The three cases before the court were the latest – and perhaps the last – edge-of-the-seat moment for organisers, who appear determined to pull off this edition of the world’s oldest running international football tournament despite the obstacles.
Already delayed by a year because of the pandemic, the Copa America nearly unravelled when original co-hosts Colombia and Argentina fell through at the last minute – the former because of violent anti-government protests, the latter because of a surge of COVID-19 cases.
With the clock ticking down to this Sunday’s opening match, Brazil stepped in last week as emergency hosts for the 10-nation tournament.
But the decision is hugely controversial: Brazil is also reeling from COVID-19, which has killed nearly 480,000 people in the country, second only to the United States