Copa America Football Geography: Three countries with a full territory in South America are indeed not members of the South American Football Confederation

The janitor of Monument Stadium

2024-05-31 09:00Posted in Henan Sports Creators

2024 is the year of the sports competition. Both the European Championship and the Copa America will be played in June. The 2024 America's Cup will be held in the United States on June 20.

The organizer of the Copa America is the South American Football Confederation. As a result, the member countries of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) will automatically qualify for the Copa America finals.

Of the 10 members of the South American Football Confederation, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay are World Cup winners.

All 10 members are from the South American continent. However, not all South American countries participate in the Copa America or the South American qualifiers for the World Cup.

There are three teams that play in South America but in North America and the Caribbean. They are Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.

Because the new America's Cup has adopted a strict screening process for wild cards in North and Central America. The weaker three teams missed out on the 2024 Copa America early. As a result, they appear very infrequently.

Of these three members, Suriname appears relatively frequently. Because a number of Dutch internationals, including Virgil van Dijk, Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit, are of Surinamese descent.

Historically, Suriname also had a name – Dutch Guiana. After independence, it was renamed Suriname from Dutch Guiana.

It can be said that all three Guyana in South America play in CACACAF competitions.

So, what is the relationship between these three Guyanas, and why don't they play South America but Central and North America?

It's all about the Guiana Shield

The word Guyana comes from the local indigenous language and means land of many waters. The area of Guyana encompassed present-day Guyana, French Guiana, all of Suriname, as well as northern Brazil and eastern Venezuela. The region is located in a tropical rainforest climate zone, with high temperatures and rains throughout the year, and numerous rivers.

The topography of the Guyana region is the Guyana Shield. A ground shield, also called a craton, refers to an area where a large area of basement rock is exposed to the surface. The terrain of the shield usually appears to have a convex surface, but it has a flat convex surface. Its rocks are an important basis for studying geological changes.

The Guyana Ground Shield, except for the plains in the coastal areas, is mostly at high altitude and is also known as the Guiana Plateau. The Guiana Altiplans are the second largest highlands in South America after the Brazilian Altiplanals. Because it is located near the equator, it has been affected by the equatorial low pressure zone for a long time, and it is hot and rainy all year round.

Divided into three: everything has to do with history

There are three places in South America called Guyana, namely Guyana (United States), Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana) and French Guiana. Of these, two became independent from their original suzerainty, while one remained in France and became France's overseas region.

Historically, in addition to the British, French, and Dutch territories, there were Spanish Guiana and Portuguese Guiana. Combined, there are five Guyanas.

It's all about history. When Columbus's fleet reached beyond the American continent, South America lived in isolation. The arrival of Columbus's fleet shattered the tranquility here. Spain and Portugal were the first to land on the American continent, establishing Spanish Guiana and Portuguese Guiana.

Later, Britain, France, and the Netherlands also joined the process of carving up the New World. A new round of competition has been launched on the American continent.

After centuries of competition among the five great powers, the South American continent has formed a situation in which five Guianas: Spanish Guiana, British Guiana, French Guiana, Portuguese Guiana, and Dutch Guiana, are juxtaposed.

The South American continent was mainly divided between Spain and Portugal, so Guyana faded out of the other three countries. Spain divided Spanish Guiana into the Venezuelan Metropolitan Governorate of New Granada, while Portugal divided the region of Guyana into the sole Viceroyalty, Brazil.

In the 10s and 20s of the 19th century, Latin American independence movements broke out on the South American continent against Spanish and Portuguese colonial rule, and Spanish and Portuguese colonists withdrew from the South American continent. Spanish colony Spanish Guiana became the territory of Gran Colombia and Venezuela, and Portuguese Guiana became Brazilian territory.

The British, French, and Dutch possessions on the Guiana plateau ushered in a choice that would determine their fate after World War II. Eventually, the British and Dutch territories became independent from their original suzerainty and became the United States of Guyana (formerly British) and Suriname (formerly Dutch). French Guiana refused to choose independence and remained in France.

Guyana and Suriname formed their own football associations after independence, because they are weaker, not only weaker than South American powerhouses Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, but also much weaker than Venezuela and Bolivia. With their strength, it is very likely that there will be a tragedy with Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.

Second, the languages of the two countries are English and Dutch, which are significantly different from those of the former Portuguese colonies. On the contrary, it has many similarities with the West Indies in the Caribbean.

As a result, they firmly chose the CONCACAF region.

Guyana Football: North and Central America is also a little transparent

The Guyana Football Federation was established in 1902. In 1965, Guyana gained independence from the United Kingdom and became the United States of Guyana. In 1968, Guyana joined FIFA and CONCACACAF football. As a result, Guyana qualifies for the CONCACAF Gold Cup and World Cup qualifiers.

Even in the CONCACAF region, the Guyana football team plays the role of accompanying the prince to study.

The 2019 Gold Cup, Guyana's first and so far only competition, resulted in 1 draw and 2 defeats without a win.

Currently, the Guyana national team is ranked 154th in FIFA, behind China's 88th.

Suriname: the Netherlands' talent pool abroad

Suriname is ranked 144th in FIFA, which is lower than China's team but much higher than Guyana's.

The Suriname Football Association was founded in 1920 and joined FIFA in 1929. After independence in 1975, Suriname became a member of the CONCACACAF region. As a result, Suriname can participate in both the World Cup qualifiers and the Gold Cup.

However, the difference in strength has kept Suriname out of the competition. The 2021 Gold Cup is the first time Suriname has participated in it in recent years. The only win was a 2-1 victory over Guadeloupe (non-FIFA member).

Suriname have never been on the World Series stage themselves, but they have contributed a lot of football talent to the Netherlands.

From Euro 1988 to the present day, many Dutch players are of Surinamese descent. For example, among the Three Musketeers, Rijkaard and Gullit, Van Dijk, Seedorf, Kluivert, Davis, Promes, Wijnaldum, etc., all have Surinamese ancestry.

Since Suriname became independent from the Netherlands, many people have gone to live in the Netherlands, the original suzerain, because of the turmoil in the country. Because Suriname does not recognize the dual citizenship policy, many people choose Dutch citizenship and no longer work for Suriname. That's why we see that the Netherlands is so strong and Suriname is so weak.

French Guiana: A member of CONCACAF but not a member of FIFA

The French Guiana region has long been a French overseas territory. Today, the region is also part of the European Union.

The French Guiana Football Federation was established in 1991 until 2013, when it joined the CONCACAF and became a member. As a result, French Guiana can only participate in the qualifiers for the Gold Cup, but not in FIFA-owned competitions, including the World Cup and the Confederations Cup (even if they are the champions of the Gold Cup).

In the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup, French Guiana participated in the tournament for the first time. This time, French Guiana has impressed fans all over the world. But this time they made headlines in the world media, not because of their stellar performance like Iceland, but because of a farce.

The protagonist of the farce was Malouda, the captain of French Guiana at the time.

Speaking of Malouda, I believe many French fans will be familiar with it. That's right, he is the French player who played for France at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and the 2008 Switzerland-Austria Euro Championship and the 2012 Polish-Ukrainian European Championship.

He turned to French Guiana after quitting the French team. Because we know that unless it is a situation similar to the change of state power in Yugoslavia, there is a situation in which Stankovic (the impact of the change of state, representing the Yugoslav Union (1998 World Cup, Euro 2000), Serbia and Montenegro (2006 World Cup) and Serbia (2010 World Cup)) has arisen. The rest of the time, a player is not allowed to play for two national teams.

And the reason why he risked the world's condemnation is because of this loophole - French Guiana is not a member of FIFA. Therefore, it is very difficult for FIFA to manage this. Therefore, Malouda's representation in the Gold Cup for French Guiana has also made it very difficult for the CONCACAF to play in the Gold Cup.

In that Gold Cup, French Guiana was in the same group as Canada, Honduras and Costa Rica.

CONCACACAF is also textbook-slow to react. Because it was not until the second match against Honduras that Malouda, in consultation with FIFA, was declared ineligible to represent French Guiana. However, French Guiana and Malouda eventually fell on deaf ears, with Malouda playing the full game as captain.

In the aftermath, the CONCACAF Federation, which felt that it had been ignored, reacted quickly and issued heavy fines to the French Guiana team and Malouda himself: Malouda was banned for two games, and French Guiana lost 0-3 against Honduras. In this way, Malouda, French Guiana and CONCACAF co-directed a farce that made headlines in the world in an inglorious form.

View original image 103K

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•