CONMEBOL said on Saturday it was upgrading the pitch at the Maracana Stadium for the Copa America final, amid criticism from other areas of play in the tournament.
The judgement will be on 10 July. Weeks earlier, after Brazil became host to the Copa América in the last minute, organizers scheduled seven matches for the Nilton Santos Stadium in Rio de Janeiro after the pitch at nearby Maracan was damaged.
But the criticism has only grown since the start of the tournament. The Arena Pantanal in Cuiaba, which will host another group stage match, has also been targeted for irregular patches and submerged areas on the pitch.
Brazil coach Tite recently joined Neymar, Lionel Messi and others in attacking the organization for Nilton Santos' poor pitch, which was used for track and field at the 2016 Olympics and was regularly played by local club Botafogo. Used from, which is currently playing in second place in the country. the division.
After Thursday's 2-1 win against Colombia, Tite said the pitch at the ground was "unacceptable". CONMEBOL fined $5,000 the next day for criticizing the organization of the tournament, which was moved to Brazil after Colombia and Argentina withdrew from hosting. for the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Saturday, Tite again cast doubt on the Maracana pitch for the decider.
"If I talk about [Nilton Santos's] bad pitch, I will be fined," Tite told a news conference ahead of Sunday's Group B match against Ecuador in Goiânia.
"It will happen again. Maracana won't be good until the final. There's little time [to improve]. You can write that."
Hours after Tite's press conference CONMEBOL published a video showing it improvising half of Maracana's pitch. Agronomist Maristella Kuhn told the CONMEBOL body that there are "good results in a very few days".
"It's great because the pitch will only be used for one [Copa America] match. And all that service remains for the clubs [playing in the Maracan]," she said.
After Brazil's 4–0 win against Peru on 17 June, Neymar took to Instagram and said: "Celebrating yesterday's goal on Engenhao's 'beautiful' pitch."
"Please, fix the pitch," he said.
Peru goalkeeper Pedro Gallis agreed.
"The pitch was in terrible conditions. You couldn't take the goal kick. The ball sinks," he said. Three days earlier, Messi said "the pitch didn't help much" after Argentina's 1–1 draw with Chile. same stadium.
His coach, Lionel Scaloni, was even more stern: "It's a pitch for another game, not for playing football."
No major improvements have been made since then. Brazilian media reported on Saturday that the country's football federation is trying to persuade CONMEBOL to move its quarter-final match to the Arena Pantanal - Celecao has already moved to the top of Group B, with a match in hand. .
The 2019 edition of the Copa America, which was also held in Brazil, also had pitch problems, especially at the Arena do Gremio in Porto Alegre.