Heading towards half a century of tournaments, the Copa America is a staple of South American football, and has been extended to the rest of the Americas in recent decades.
With Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil as the traditional powerhouses throughout the history of the competition, continental domination has become one of the main objectives — just behind the World Cup — for any team from the region.
But exactly how often is the tournament played, and what is the schedule for how it fits in on the overall football calendar? The Sporting News has the answers.
How often is the Copa America played?
The Copa America is held every 4 years, although for different reasons, in the last decade there have been several exceptions to that rule.
MORE: Full schedule of matches for Copa America 2024 in USA
One of those involved the holding of the Copa America Centenario in 2016, just a year after the competition was held in Chile. In that case, organizers CONMEBOL scheduled a special edition to mark the 100th anniversary of the competition, with the first edition held in Argentina in 1916.
Like this year's showpiece, that centenary tournament was held in the United States.
In the early years, the Copa was held far more regularly, sometimes annually, and in 2019 and 2020 it was also scheduled that there would be two consecutive Copas. That was in order to try and align the schedule with the dates of the European Championship. However, both the Copa America and the Euros were eventually moved to 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic .
Both CONMEBOL and UEFA ultimately respected the planned four-year cycle of their tournaments, largely to keep in line with playing them in between each World Cup, and the latest editions take place three years since the last ones, both starting in June 2024.
The next Copa America after this will be played in 2028.
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Copa America all-time winners list
| Nation | No. of Titles | Years Won |
| Argentina | 15 | 1921, 1925, 1927, 1929, 1937, 1941,1945, 1946, 1947, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1991, 1993, 2021 |
| Uruguay | 15 | 1916, 1917, 1920, 1923, 1924, 1926, 1935, 1942, 1956, 1959, 1967, 1983, 1987, 1995, 2011 |
| Brazil | 9 | 1919, 1922, 1949, 1989, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2007, 2019 |
| Chile | 2 | 2015, 2016 |
| Paraguay | 2 | 1953, 1979 |
| Peru | 2 | 1939, 1975 |
| Bolivia | 1 | 1963 |
| Colombia | 1 | 2001 |
