The historic and successful staging of the Copa America on US soil has validated the possibilities that can result from cross-continental co-operation between football interests.

The recent Copa America Centenario, staged across 10 US venues as a celebratory edition of the storied South America championship, has been deemed a resounding success by organisers.

It has broken many tournament records, including that of attendance and television viewership, triggering the possibility of future co-operation between CONCACAF, the governing body of football for North, Central America and the Caribbean, and CONMEBOL, the governing body for South America.

But newly elected president of the host confederation and a key player in rescuing the tournament that was cast in doubt in the height of the corruption tsunami, Victor Montagliani, believes prudent collaboration of all confederations can only help to grow the game across multiple fronts.

“In terms of future collaboration that’s an opportunity and we are open to any discussions, not only at the national team level, because as you say there could be opportunity at the development level, the club level, for both genders, and even in an administrative way, and I think those are some obvious things that make sense,” he told the Jamaica Observer recently.

“I think the confederations, all six of us, need each other. Obviously some make more sense geographically, for example us and CONMEBOL, but I think it’s important that we all work together,” said the Canadian businessman, who took over the scandal-plagued organisation on May 12.

Montagliani, 50, thinks years of sub-continental and cultural polarisation has presented missed opportunities for the various confederations to score in critical areas of co-operation on commercial and development initiatives.

“I think one of the issues which football has had in the past is that perhaps we haven’t worked together like we should have, so I think that it’s important for the confederations to work together,” he trumpeted.

The Copa America Centenario, he argues, will stand as a model of the enormous mutual benefit that can come from confederation sharing a common goal and interest.

“It exceeded all our expectations like budgets and sales and those numbers exceeded everybody’s expectations. I think everyone has been overwhelmed with the success,” Montagliani noted.

He says with the commercial and operational success apart, the president of the Canadian Soccer Association believes that the real winner at the end of the three-week tournament was football.

“It was worth the effort because I think anytime you have an opportunity to put that kind of football on the pitch, regardles of the business aspect, which obviously has to make sense, it’s always worth it,” notes Montagliani.

“I think the legacy will first and foremost has to be football… I think the fantastic football and the players we saw on the pitch, and that’s the best legacy for the young fans who watched those games and who will want to go home and try to imitate the Messis and the Sanchezes of the world, and I think that can’t be overstated. Obviously, there will be a legacy operationally in terms of another success on CONCACAF soil,” he added.

Though organisers have come in for high praise for a well-executed championship, it was never always smooth sailing.

“We have not had our full review, but organisational and operationally, we are excited how it all went, but as you rightly said there were a few hiccups here and there, some things were just going to happen as that’s the nature of the beast.

“I am not sure we could have done much better, as perhaps if we had more time we could have corrected some things, but I don’t think anyone could be dissatisfied with the operational success of the tournament,” Montagliani said.

He added that commercial partners have noted their satisfaction with the overall success of the event, and many have hinted an eagerness to jump on board with future ventures.

“Our commercial partners in discussions I have had with them, even at the final, were very happy with respect to the return they got on the investments and obviously on the exposure they got because obviously it was such a fantastic tournament,” Montagliani told the

Observer.

This year’s tournament set new records for total and average attendance, television viewership in the United States and throughout the world, and digital and social media engagement.

Some 1.5 million fans attended the 32 games across 10 venues in the United States, for an average of more than 46,000 fans per game, making it the most attended Copa America in the tournament’s 100-year history.

It was the second highest-attended official single-game soccer tournament played in the United States, behind only the 1994 FIFA World Cup Finals, where 20 more games were played.

Along with record-setting attendance, Copa America Centenario – a tournament to which CONMEBOL invited six qualifiers from the CONCACAF region – has delivered impressive television ratings in the United States as more than 100 million viewers have watched games on the Univision and Fox networks.

Copa America Centenario has also delivered record ratings for Univision Deportes, with the group stage drawing a larger audience than the group stage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Internationally, Copa America Centenario has been televised in more than 160 countries around the world, reaching more than 1.5 billion households.

Social media engagement has also skyrocketed, as the tournament has seen more than 3.5 million users across all social media platforms, surpassing the 2015 Copa America in Chile.

Chile, inspired by Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez, won the tournament 4-2 on penalties over Argentina led by the irrepressible Barcelona superstar, Lionel Messi.