Copa America is beautiful history

I am heading down to Argentina not looking forward to the intense winter cold - quite frankly, it is the kind of thing I crossed the Atlantic to avoid - but with a warm glow in anticipation of the 43rd Copa America, which kicks off on Friday.

The tournament has a double-edged beauty. It is a pilgrimage to a place where football history was made, and a fascinating opportunity to witness history in the making.

The world’s oldest continental tournament, the Copa was first staged in Argentina in 1916. There are times during the competition’s 95-year history that it can claim to have showcased some of the best football ever seen at that point.

Until the Wall Street crash of 1929, it was held annually (with the exceptions of 1918 and 28), on four of those occasions in Argentina. At a time when football in the continent’s south cone was catching on at extraordinary speed, these regular confrontations did much to raise standards.

In this sense, the World Cup is a child of the Copa America. Uruguay changed football by winning the Olympics of 1924 and 28, creating curiosity for a new global competition open to professionals - the World Cup, which Uruguay staged and won in 1930. None of this would have happened had Uruguay not picked up momentum and experience in the early versions of the Copa.

Then there is the 1940s, the golden age of Argentine football, with Brazil making rapid progress after professionalism had opened up the game to players from all backgrounds. I would love to have been around for the 1946 Copa, staged in Argentina, when the hosts cruised to the title, conducted by one of their all-time greats, Adolfo Pedernera. That must have been something to see.

But there will be plenty to see this year, too. And in one sense, 2011 holds an advantage over the great tournaments of the past. In terms of the strength in depth of the South American national teams, this might be the most formidable Copa ever played.

The credit here goes not to the Copa, but to the marathon format of World Cup qualification, which is now used in South America. Since 1996, the continent’s 10 countries play each other home and away, in one big league.

It takes years - but remember that there are no qualifiers for the Copa America, unlike, for example, the European Championships. The South Americans are not playing any more qualifiers than the Europeans - it is just that they start the race for 2014 while Europe is still concerned with 2012.

In fact, the main consequence of the marathon format was to give the South Americans the kind of structure that European national teams take for granted. Previously, on this side of the Atlantic, there were huge gaps between competitive games - easy for the likes of Brazil and Argentina to fix up lucrative friendlies, much more difficult for the less-traditional nations.

But since 1996, these countries have been able to count on a calendar of regular competitive matches, with guaranteed income, and thus the chance to hire a top-quality coach, to keep a team together for the long term and also invest in youth development.

The difference has been amazing. Ecuador were a South American version of Luxembourg. In 2006, they made the world’s last 16. Venezuela were a version of the Faroe Islands. They now have genuine hope of booking a place in 2014.

Uruguay, it may be recalled, came fifth in the last set of qualifiers, and had to go through the play-offs to get to South Africa, where, of course, they reached the semi-finals. Initially, this new format of World Cup qualification had a detrimental effect on the Copa America. After decades of disuse (coinciding with the reign of the military dictatorships), the Copa was resurrected in 1987, and was held every two years.

After 1996, this meant that there was an excess of international fixtures, and the Copa paid the price. The tournament was greatly devalued, full of experimental line ups.

Now, though, the Copa has been shifted to a perfect time. Staged every four years, the tournament kicks off a new cycle of competitive matches. Since the World Cup, the South American sides have been blooding new coaches and boosting their bank balances with friendlies.