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I attended a few matches of the Copa América Centenario last year, hosted in the United States, and bought a t-shirt at an official FIFA merchandise stand at a match in Chicago. See pictured.

enter image description here

While it seems like all sixteen of the countries that participated in the tournament are listed in alphabetical order clockwise around the shirt, there are two teams that do not follow this pattern. I'm not going to count the United States, which appears at the top of the circle (the USA hosted the tournament and prominent spots on advertisements are often reserved for FIFA host countries).

Colombia and Chile are out of order and should be switched. I guess this could just be an oversight because both of the countries begin with C, but that would surprise me. Do either of these countries have a different name that would cause them to be in this order?

The other country that is out of order is Argentina. I'm really confused why Argentina appears in between Uruguay and Venezuela. Argentina's official name is the Argentine Republic (República Argentina in Spanish), but that shouldn't move it on the list.

Does Argentina have another English name that would place it between Uruguay and Venezuela alphabetically? Are the countries on the shirt ordered in a different language besides English? Was the quasi-alphabetical ordering simply a mistake?

The complete list of countries are, in clockwise order from the top:

  • United States (host)
  • Bolivia
  • Brazil
  • Colombia
  • Chile
  • Costa Rica
  • Ecuador
  • Haiti
  • Jamaica
  • Mexico
  • Panama
  • Paraguay
  • Peru
  • Uruguay
  • Argentina
  • Venezuela
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    I seem to be hearing the conversation between the designers: —Argentina goes first alphabetically. —Yes, but the host is USA. —OK, then flip them in the logo. Yes, I know United States would go before Uruguay, not after.
    – fedorqui
    Aug 29, 2017 at 12:55
  • If the case was use Republica Argentina, then the order would be bad anyway, since Brasil isRepublica Federativa del Brasil, Uruguay is Republica Oriental del Uruguay, y Venezuela is Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela
    – gbianchi
    Aug 29, 2017 at 13:31
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    @fedorqui, that's a genuine answer! And yes, United States won't but USA would go after Uruguay.
    – gdrt
    Aug 29, 2017 at 14:40

1 Answer 1

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As it is practically unlikely that we get the most genuine reason, the only thing left for us is to speculate. And by combining the network consensus I am posting a community wiki answer:

  • Columbia and Chile are out of order and should be switched but it could be an oversight because both countries begin with C. - Observation by Jacob Shetler.
  • Argentina should go first alphabetically, but the host is USA, so the designers probably simply decided to switch them - Observed by fedorqui and corrected by gdrt.
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