The competition was organized by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body, and was held in Peru, who hosted the tournament for the sixth time, from 6 to 25 July.

The two invited countries for this edition of the Copa América were Mexico and Costa Rica.

Each association had to present a list of twenty-two players to compete in the competition.

For logistical reasons the three teams from Pots 1 & 4 were manually assigned to their groups ahead of the draw.

At the end of the first stage, a comparison was made between the third-placed teams of each group.