Conmebol awards Copa America 2019 commercial rights to MP & Silva

CONMEBOL, the governing body for association football in South America, has announced MP & Silva as the commercial agency partner for Copa America Brazil 2019 media rights.

The global sports management agency, MP & Silva has been awarded the contract unanimously by the Council of Conmenbol for consultancy and commercialization of Copa America 2019.

The tender and adjudication were supervised by the auditing firm Ernst & Young. The tender process to secure a new commercial agency partner was announced by Conmebol last month

The contract will include the marketing of broadcast, sponsorship and other commercial rights for the 46th edition of the tournament, scheduled for next year.

MP & Silva will be responsible for the consulting, sales and after-sales services of the oldest and most prestigious tournament of CONMEBOL, the COPA AMERICA Brazil 2019.

This appointment takes place within the framework of the profound reforms that, since January 2016, which CONMEBOL has been implementing to professionalize and make transparent the governance of South American football, as well as improving the quality and organization of its tournaments.

Conmebol president Alejandro Dominguez said, “MP & Silva is a well-known firm specialising in the marketing of sports rights and works with major events such as the French Open tennis, NFL, (Italy’s) Serie A and the (English) Premier League. This decision taken by the Council marks a milestone in the fulfilment of the strategic promise of generating greater value to reinvest in the development of football.”

MP & Silva President of Americas, Frank Uddo, said, “We are proud to be awarded the opportunity to work with CONMEBOL on such a globally popular football tournament as Copa America. We look forward to working closely with them to deliver new and exciting opportunities for global fans to experience some of the best and most competitive football in the world.”

MP & Silva will create a dedicated team located in Brazil for this project that will work exclusively in coordination with CONMEBOL and the Local Organizing Committee of Copa America 2019 for the delivery of this contract. This will provide CONMEBOL with best in class tools to successfully implement the commercial maximization of Copa America rights regionally and globally.

Conmebol’s former partner Datisa’s contract, for Copa America 2019 and 2023, was terminated after the three main shareholders in Datisa were among others indicted by the US federal agencies in May 2015 for bribery and corruption charges.

Alejandro Burzaco, Hugo Jinkis and his son Mariano Jinkis, all Argentine citizens, had allegedly conspired to win and retain lucrative media rights contracts from regional football federations through the payment of up to $110m in bribes, US Indictment had said earlier.

The decision to terminate Datisa’s contract came after Concacaf, the governing body of football in the Caribbean, North America and Central America, in October 2015 followed Conmebol in ending its commercial rights partnership with Datisa in relation to the Copa América Centenario, which was held in the United States in 2016.