Rio de Janeiro, March 31 (IANS): The 2019 Copa America here could feature four teams from Europe under a proposal to expand football's oldest continental tournament.

South American football governing body CONMEBOL is considering a plan to invite Spain, Portugal, France and Italy to participate in the competition, according to Brazilian news service Globo Esporte on Thursday, reports Xinhua news agency.

It said a meeting of CONMEBOL officials in the coming weeks would decide whether the tournament will be expanded from its current 10-team format.

One proposal is to create a 12-team competition featuring CONMEBOL's 10 South American nations plus Mexico and the US.

"But there is also an idea to further increase the number of participants and include Latin European countries," Globoesporte said, adding that Japan had also shown interest in taking part.

The 2019 Copa America will be the last to be played in an odd year. From 2020, the tournament will be held in the same four-year cycle as the UEFA European Championship.