page_title: Copa América
section_title: Disorganization and intermittency
hierarchical_section_title: Copa América / History / Disorganization and intermittency
caption_attribution_description: Español: Argentina national team –nicknamed Los Carasucias– that won the 1957 South American championship in Lima, winning 5 of 6 matches. Players are, f.l.t.r (standing): Juan Carlos Giménez, Guillermo Stábile (coach), Rogelio Domínguez, Pedro Dellacha, Néstor Rossi, Federico Vairo, Ángel Schandlein; (bent): Orestes Corbatta, Humberto Maschio, Antonio Angelillo, Enrique Sívori, Osvaldo Cruz.
context_page_description: CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship, is the main men's football tournament contested among national teams from CONMEBOL. It is the oldest international football competition, and is the third most watched competition. The competition determines the champion of South America. Since the 1990s, teams from North America and Asia have also been invited to participate.
  Since 1993, the tournament has generally featured 12 teams – all 10 CONMEBOL teams and two additional teams from other confederations. Mexico participated in every tournament between 1993 and 2016, with one additional team drawn from CONCACAF, except for 1999, when AFC team Japan filled out the 12-team roster, and 2019, which featured Japan and Qatar. The 2016 version of the event, Copa América Centenario, featured sixteen teams, with six teams from CONCACAF in addition to the 10 from CONMEBOL. Mexico's two runner-up finishes are the highest for a non-CONMEBOL side.
  Eight of the ten CONMEBOL national teams have won the tournament at least once in its 46 stagings since the event's inauguration in 1916, with only Ecuador and Venezuela yet to win.
context_section_description: After the first World Cup held in Uruguay in 1930, the enmity between the football federations of Uruguay and Argentina prevented the competition from being played for a number of years. Only in 1935 was it possible to dispute a special edition of the event to be officially reinstated in 1939. Peru became the host nation of the 1939 edition and won the competition for the first time. Ecuador made their debut at that tournament.
  In 1941, Chile hosted that year's edition in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Santiago for which the capacity of the newly built Estadio Nacional was expanded from 30,000 to 70,000 spectators. Despite the large investment and initial success of the team, the Chileans would be defeated in the last match by eventual champions Argentina. Uruguay hosted and won the 1942 edition. Chile would host again in 1945, and came close to playing for the title against Argentina.  However, Brazil spoiled that possibility, and Argentina would win the tournament once again on Chilean soil.
  The event then entered a period of great disruption. The championship was not played on a regular basis and many editions would be deemed unofficial, only to be considered valid later on by CONMEBOL. For example, Argentina would be the first (and so far only) team to win three consecutive titles by winning the championships of 1945, 1946 and 1947. After those three annual tournaments, the competition returned to being held every two years, then three and later four. There were even two tournaments held in 1959, one in Argentina and a second in Ecuador. During this period, some of the national teams were indifferent to the tournament. Some did not participate every year, others sent lesser teams; in the 1959 edition held in Ecuador, Brazil entered a team from the state of Pernambuco. Bolivia won for the first time when it hosted in 1963, but was defeated in the first game of the 1967 tournament by debutant Venezuela. The founding of the Copa Libertadores in 1959 also affected the way the tournament was viewed by its participants.
  After eight years of absence, the event resumed in 1975 and officially acquired the name Copa América. The tournament had no fixed venue, and all matches were played throughout the year in each country. Nine teams participated in the group stages with the defending champions receiving a bye into the semifinals. The tournament was contested every four years using this system until 1987.
caption: The Carasucias or dirty faces, a name that was known for Argentina who won the 1957 South American Championship held in Peru.
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