Copa America limps to start line despite pandemic

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil kicks-off the Copa America that almost never was on Sunday, on home soil for the second time in three years with minnows Venezuela as their opponents in a tournament already dominated by issues off the pitch.

After an often absurd odyssey, the 2020 Copa America kicks off a year late, in a different country and with fewer teams — and, most perplexingly, in the midst of a Covid-19 pandemic raging even more fiercly than it was 12 months ago when the health situation was deemed too dangerous to play.

Co-hosts Argentina and Colombia were stripped of their rights at the 11th hour, due mostly to the deteriorating pandemic situations in those countries but also…