With over 530.000 people attending the stadiums, a total of 716.000 tickets sold and an average attendance of 29.379 people per match, the CONMEBOL Copa America Brazil 2019 concluded its first stage with positive results, according to the Local Organizing Committee and CONMEBOL. In addition, to its success with fans, the organization pointed the quality of the competition and the way that fans from approximately 124 countries have celebrated in the five host cities of the tournament.
"The results are positive. I am very pleased with the progress of the tournament and as we move forward, everything is improving, just like any great event. Today our gratification is that we have seen celebrations like the one we saw yesterday (Monday) at the Maracanã: the fans of the two countries together, celebrating, each of them celebrating in their own way, without any inconvenience. This is positive for us and shows that we are on the right direction", said Agberto Guimarães, Operations Director of the Local Organizing Committee.
In the same way, Hugo Figueredo, director of CONMEBOL's National Team Competitions," ... pointed out that the statistics obtained in this edition of the competition already exceed those reached in the previous edition of CONMEBOL Copa América held in Chile in 2015.
"The assessment was really positive in terms of organization, sport, and with regard to the spectators, there were no problems either. There were no more problems than those that could arise on the field of play between the players.
46 goals have been scored in all the games played so far and 15% more goals in this tournament than in the Copa America in Chile. It is also a positive balance in relation to the coverage in social media with more than 67 million users who follow closely the details of this championship. Ticket sales have also grown throughout the competition and 179 countries are following the Copa América. I think we're doing what we said at the beginning: we'll have the best tournament in history in all dimensions, both sporting and organizational" he said.
The trend is increasing for the next phases, according to Thiago Jannuzzi, general manager of Competition of the Local Organizing Committee.
"With the beginning of the second phase, which are the qualifying rounds, the general interest is increasing and the average will be increased until the end of the competition. Other interesting numbers are the average of 2.55 goals per game compared to the previous edition, there was an increase, because the average was 2.27 goals per game throughout the competition" he said.
Prominent use of VAR
Wilson Seneme, president of the CONMEBOL Arbitration Committee, assessed the use of VAR, the technology that assists arbitrators in their decisions. CONMEBOL Copa América Brazil 2019 is the first competition held by the organization that uses technology from the beginning to the end of the competition.
Seneme emphasized his pleasure at the use and acceptance of the resource by the arbitration professionals, in addition to the objective achieved of giving greater transparency and equity to the confrontations.
"The average revision time was 1min 08s, which was the time lost from the moment the referee put his hand in his ear until the restart of the game. The total average time of the revisions was 1.17 seconds. Thus, we have an average total time of 2min 26s per revision. However, it is clear that there were some revisions in which the game was stopped for four or five minutes, but there is something to add, for example, the medical attention that there was before" he said.
In his opinion, the VAR was used by referees in 17 of the 18 matches in the first phase. There were 15 changes in the scoreboard and two remained unaltered. In addition, for 11 times the referee had to go to the monitor to watch the game. Of the decisions that triggered the appeal, seven were by goal decision, seven by penalty shootout decision and three by use of cards.
Other statistics from the first phase:
Ball possession - Brazil (70.5%), Colombia (54.2%) and Uruguay (53.9%).
Disarmament - Uruguay (60), Chile (58) and Bolivia (54).
Highest-scoring player: Luis Suarez (URU), 17; Cavani (URU), 13; and Guerrero and Farfan (Peru), 10.
539 fouls scored.
74 yellow cards
1 expulsion by two yellow cards
2 expulsions by direct red card
About the Copa América
The 46th edition of the world's oldest national team tournament, which returns to Brazil after 30 years, will be played in five host cities (Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and São Paulo) with 12 participating teams. Nine FIFA World Cup titles and some of the world's biggest football stars will be on the field. 
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