CONCACAF Prez: Combined Copa America 2.0 talks “beyond preliminary”

It’s the rumor that just won’t go away. Nearly a year after the Copa America Centenario was a great success in the United States, there’s talk of another tournament of that ilk happening again. CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani tells ESPNFC that he is in talks with CONMEBOL to bring back the dual-federation tournament and those discussions are past the beginning stages.

"We've had those discussions with CONMEBOL because I think it makes sense," said Montagliani, in an exclusive interview with ESPN FC. "We're not talking about joining the confederations, but I think it behooves us to take a serious look at having another combined tournament."

Montagliani added, "The discussions aren't at the final stages or even halfway, but it's beyond preliminary."

Montagliani also added that his “excellent” relationship with CONMEBOL President Alejandro Dominguez makes it that much more likely another dual-federation tournament happens eventually. As for when that could be? The CONCACAF head says that the current calendar wouldn’t allow for it until 2020 at the earliest.

"It's not as easy as saying, 'Hey, let's have a tournament.' There are a lot of moving parts," said Montagliani. "How does that affect our own Gold Cup, how does it affect their Copa America? Their next Copa America is in Brazil in 2019. Our next Gold Cup is in 2017 and then again in 2019. Nothing will happen before that, but I think there are some serious opportunities there after 2019."