17.09.2015 03:38 h

US officials to miss Copa Centenario meeting

The United States Soccer Federation will not be represented at a key meeting regarding the 2016 Copa America Centenario it was confirmed Wednesday, fueling uncertainty about the venue for the scandal-tainted tournament.

A USSF source confirmed to AFP that no US representatives would be present for Thursday's meeting in Mexico City, where officials from North, Central and South America were to discuss the tournament, initially planned to take place in the United States next June.

"We will not have a US Soccer representative at the meeting," the source said in an email to AFP.

The fate of the Copa America Centenario, a 16-team tournament being held to mark the centenary of the Copa America, has been hanging in the balance since May, when several officials from the region were named in the US-led corruption inquiry which plunged world football into crisis.

The New York Times reported that the absence of US officials pointed to US Soccer withdrawing as host of the tournament. The Times report said the United States may also decide not to enter a team in the event.

The tournament was due to showcase the cream of South American football as well as teams from North and Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF).

However the Times said US Soccer was now poised to withdraw over legal concerns stemming from the arrests of officials involved in planning for the tournament.

On Saturday, CONCACAF issued a statement saying it was working closely with US Soccer officials and South American federation CONMEBOL with a view to pressing ahead with the tournament in the United States.

"We are continuing to work with CONMEBOL, the US Soccer Federation and all other stakeholders on hosting the Copa America Centenario tournament in the United States," CONCACAF said.

"CONCACAF is committed to continue working with all parties to address the operational, format and financial issues relating to the tournament in order to ensure greater transparency to this event."

On Friday, CONMEBOL chief Juan Angel Napout, also told a Paraguayan radio station that the Copa America Centenario would go ahead in the United States as planned.

However the absence of a USSF presence at Thursday's meeting in Mexico appears to be another blow to the chances of the event going ahead in the United States.

A decision on which US cities would host matches in the tournament -- the biggest in the United States since the 1994 World Cup -- had already been delayed earlier this year.

CONCACAF and CONMEBOL were two of the most heavily implicated continental governing football bodies in the FIFA corruption scandal.

Former CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb was among those arrested during the swoops in Zurich ahead of the FIFA Congress in May.

The 2016 Copa America Centenario featured prominently in a 160-page indictment released by US prosecutors in May, which alleged more than $110 million in bribes had been paid to officials in CONCACAF and CONMEBOL to secure the license to sell lucrative sponsorship and media rights for the event.