First held in 1916, the tournament to be held in Peru this year, reaches its 41st edition.

According to Ten Sports vice president - programming Peter Hutton, "It's a great acquisition for us with a solid month of great international football featuring the world's greatest team - Brazil - against their fiercest rivals. It means live coverage of the best players in the world from Ronaldo to Crespo from Roberto Carlos to Veron in the most intense of sporting atmospheres"

The tournament will be contested by the 12 countries in all. Mexico and Costa Rica are included other than the 10 Conmebol (the South American Football Association) countries.

Taj Television India Pvt Ltd managing director Sharmista Rijhwani said, "Ten Sports has been very closely monitoring the soccer viewing habits of the Indian viewer over the last two years. We have come to realize that traditional soccer countries like Brazil, Argentina have a fanatical fan following across India including in soccer crazy regions".

She further added, "The attractive style of play of these countries appeals to Indian tastes and we have observed that viewership of matches involving these countries are above average".

In keeping with this philosophy Ten Sports has focused on acquiring soccer properties popular with Indian viewers. In the coming months, Ten Sports has a great line-up of football programming including the action from the South American World Cup Qualifiers upto 2006.