Football: Copa America tournament marred by blunders

Rapper Pitbull made a surprise appearance as one of his songs was played over the Chilean national anthem during Copa America 2016. Photo / Getty

The 2016 Copa America Centenario marks the 100th anniversary of the Copa America football tournament and the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL).

The tournament is supposed to celebrate the centenary of the two, and is this year being hosted outside South America for the first time.

The tournament is being held in the United States, and organisers have come under scrutiny for several blunders that have occurred after only a few opening days.

On just the second day of the tournament things went awry. During the national anthems before a match between Mexico and Uruguay, the national anthem of Chile was played instead of Uruguay's.

All the Uruguayan players could do was stand there, confused. The correct anthem was never played.

Uruguayan midfielder Diego Fagúndez later tweeted his displeasure:

Copa America organisers then issued an apology on twitter:

Copa América organizers issue apology for playing the wrong national anthem for Uruguay pic.twitter.com/Uq9XqPpK7H

— Subscribe to GrantWahl.com (@GrantWahl) June 6, 2016

Unfortunately Chile's anthem did not go smoothly when it was their turn to play their opening match of the tournament.

Naturally, the musical stylings of Pitbull interrupted the final part of the Chilean anthem before Chile took on Argentina.

A distinct "MR. WORLDWIDE!" can be heard over the anthem before the PA system was shut down and fans and players finished Canción Nacional a capella.

The same day, the Bolivian flag was displayed upside down on the big screen before Bolivia played Panama:

also showing the Bolivia flag upside down at the game yesterday pic.twitter.com/PEQlvfnTp3

— Mr Night Beat (@mancalledbixby) June 7, 2016

The official social media account of the tournament could not escape error either, with the account tweeting a graphic featuring the wrong name alongside a photo of Costa Rica's Joel Campbell:

From the wrong national anthem for Uruguay to this... Not going too well the Copa America. pic.twitter.com/gA3gUNGRHQ

— Ben (@CriminalCosta) June 7, 2016

The man on the right is not Colombia's Juan Cuadrado.

The tournament will conclude on the 26th of June, and one can only hope that the organisers have got all of the errors out of the system over the course of the opening five days.

Hopefully organisers can prove these twitter users wrong when hosts United States take on Costa Rica later today:

Copa América organizers basically have to screw up the USA anthem tonight as a make-good to Chile & Uruguay, right? https://t.co/bCd4HajIeV

— Subscribe to GrantWahl.com (@GrantWahl) June 7, 2016

“O Canada” is cued up and ready to go. #USAvCRC tonight on @FS1. #CopaAmerica

— Alexi Lalas (@AlexiLalas) June 7, 2016