Your most bizarre soccer-related idea/thought/opinion

What is your most bizarre soccer-related idea/thought/opinion? I'll write my down after some others go first.

example:

- Red and yellow cards can be given after a game if enough evidence through video footage warrants it

Pro/Rel is the magical end all/be all of soccer and the issues that exist from making it the most popular awesome superfantasticical thing in 'MERICUH

Damn so many!

USA joining uefa
conembol an concacaf fusion
Central American super league

a thought i always have, an FA cup style competition for the college level. NCAA 1,2,3 naia, unaffiliated schools, and jc's all duke it out for the title. There could even be a similar one for high schools. Logistically it would be a nightmare but that would be so freaking awesome.

Also an american soccer specific show on TV where they just talk american soccer at all levels. I still dont know why we dont have one.

I know in texas the soccer championship is already like that with 128 teams making the playoffs in each division...

True but they're still split by 5A/4A/3A...

If the rounds were staggered like the US Open Cup I'd be up for that.

Ditto.

yea staggered exactly how i pictured it.

Not that bizarre, but I've long thought it would be cool to have a Commonwealth Cup. An annual, or bi-annual, competition between the major English-speaking (read: former British colonies and the UK) national teams. I think it would be neat.

The five Home Nations, Canada, the USA, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Jamaica and India maybe... four more to make 16 and a single elimination tournament. I think it would be a lot of fun.

add Egypt, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, and Ghana and you got yourself an Old Empire Cup.

I have one stop f ing around with the rules. The game is perfect as it is and it was perfect as it was.

Just get better at playing it.

I have another stop changing the name of your club.

IN NYC in the 60's and 70's they changed the names of some ethnic clubs. They tried to Americanize the names. You can even keep the clubs records straight any more.

Who won the 1979 US Open club the Brooklyn Dodgers or the Brooklyn Italians?

This is a cool idea. The teams would certainly benefit from the increased level of competition, and the logistics aren't too bad. A flight from Guatemala City to Panama City, about the farthest you'd see anyone go, is under 4 hours.

Maybe the Central American leagues could structure themselves similarly to the Brazilian State Championship / Brasiliero system and play two leagues at different times of the year.

That's not even remotely true. In terms of modernizing archaic rules (no goal line video? Really?), soccer is the most backwards major sport in the world.

Soccer's rules weren't handed down on stone tablets on Mt. Sinai.

From a purely North American perspective, I always thought an off-season State Cup would be really neat. All 50 states, all 13 Canadian provinces plus the national teams of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, US Virgin Islands etc - players from across MLS, NASL and elsewhere play for the state/province in which they were born (or most closely associate with if you're a naturalized citizen), in a single elimination knockout competition. You'd have to have a preliminary round before you got to the final 64, but you know what I mean.

Have it in January spread across four cities in the southern USA without MLS franchises, somewhere where cold weather isn't that much of a factor (Phoenix, San Diego, Nashville, Atlanta?), and make it a proper competitive thing, keep everyone sharp before pre-season begins.

I'd watch.

i've always want to do an english premier league-mls challenge (like a tournament involving the two leagues)... it would never happen in a million years, but i think everyone here who is a soccer fan would watch it, and maybe it would get more people to watch the mls to help it become more competitive on a global scale quicker. Honestly the mls would get crushed every year, but hey man one or two Cinderella runs and all of sudden the popularity of the competition would indirectly increase the popularity of the mls.

And with that popularity, the league grows in tv revenue and exposure, and more superstars emerge in the league. Then some of the inner city kids develop a passion for it following these superstars and play with the dream of becoming pro some day. Then the NCAA and colleges will see the money that could be made from soccer in the united states and restructure their system to better accommodate developing talent and increase popularity. And THEN we churn out superstar after superstar, which allows our international team to win 10 straight world cups.

Now if that isn't a string of bizarre ideas/thoughts that i randomly had today (and probably retarded ideas too), then i don't know what is

True. I thought of Colonial Cup, but I wasn't sure if some might not be offended by it, or at least think it was a bit distasteful. I don't mind it, but I can see how others might.

Anglo-American Invitational? Pan-Anglia Super Cup?

That's one I've thought about too, though the logistics would be pretty tough.

At one point in the fall/winter, when injury was keeping me from playing soccer, I actually dug far enough into college, PDL, and NPSL stats and match reports to come up with full starting lineups for Northern and Southern California separately, all 49 other states, and the District of Columbia. Turns out the level would be pretty decent too. Only Vermont and North Dakota completely lack pros active within the last two years, and only a few states would have to dig as far down as mid-range D3 college starters.

That is actually not bad!

some issues on how pro/rel would work, etc. but not bad.

Rules are fine the players are not fine especially here in the United States.

You don't like the rules watch another sport.

What I said is true. Amatures don't think it's true.

So why am I even talking to you?

The quality level of the players and whether the rules need to be changed are completely separate issues.

How about this- I'm going to keep watching the sport but also commenting about some of the rules that need to be changed. How do you like them apples?

Not my idea cuz it was around for years then went away due to MFL representatives in CONMEBOL tournaments, but bring back the InterAmericas Cup.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copa_Interamericana

The bizarre thought in bringing it back would be to make it a very meaningful two leg Cup tie that crowned a 'Champion of the Americas' and that title earned would be the only club to represent the Americas at the Club World Cup in Japan. Recall that even if an MFL team wins the Copa Lib. that club cannot represent CONMBEBOL at the CWC. This adds to that but playing for a unified title like boxing.
In this way it cuts the CWC down a team (or two if the AFC did something similar with the Club champion from OFC and played a two leg tie that sent a champion representative from the entire Asia-Pac rim)
Thus, the reps from Europe, Americas, Africa and Asia-Pac Rim, ditch the free invitie from the J-League winner...the CWC becomes a 4 team Final Four type of event that can be played over one week with semifinals on Wed and the Grand Final and Runners-Up matches on that Sunday.
It would imho grab viewers in our hemisphere by being a competative Cup Final played in the last week of July. It would challenge MLS clubs even more with the idea of replicating what DCU did by defeating Vasco but actually force the CCL winner to travel to Vasco's home or Boca's home.
And as well cut the CWC from a 3 week long tournament in December to one week in December. Which I think most European managers would like.

Here's a bizarre idea:

I'm sorta afraid more technology might make the sport different from what it is--and not necessarily in a good way. Bad calls are kinda what make soccer as exciting as it is and have created some of the sport's most memorable moments (and I know most people see that as a bad thing). I know that sounds crazy and I don't really have a defense for it--but hey it's the way I feel!

nothing wrong with that opinion. I don't think soccer needs a replay system or anything ridiculous like that, but I think at the very least there should be some goal line technology to correct access whether some of the close calls on goal are called correctly. But that opinion kind of pours from what im used to in other sports. I'd rather have memorably moments from a game that is called correctly when a game defined by a bad call

Just an example...

Your idea wouldn't change European CWC participation in the slightest. They already play just 2 games, and don't need to arrive when the tourney begins. They arrive just in time to play their games, and stay for less than a week.