The Utopian CONCACAF: what does it look like?

[Mel Brennan]

Imagine:

You've been given a clean slate, and FIFA's going to continue to give you a tax-free $10 million every four years.

You're mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build the best possible North Am./Central Am. /Caribbean football confederation ever.

What do you do?

I can name better than you what you shouldn't do, so none of that.

What would you DO? What steps would you take, right now, a year from now, five years from now?

In 2009, what will CONCACAF (or whatever you name it) look like, and what will its impact be on local, national, regional, and world football???

[LMvCP]

Imagine:

You've been given a clean slate, and FIFA's going to continue to give you a tax-free $10 million every four years.

You're mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build the best possible North Am./Central Am. /Caribbean football confederation ever.

What do you do?

I can name better than you what you shouldn't do, so none of that.

What would you DO? What steps would you take, right now, a year from now, five years from now?

In 2009, what will CONCACAF (or whatever you name it) look like, and what will its impact be on local, national, regional, and world football???
You shouldnt have said Tax Free... :D The Gautemalan and Salvadorn feds will probabaly launder the money. The Caribbean feds will probably say it will go to that project goal and build a stadium. The stadium will probably be on hold 10 years due to permit delays. Somehow, certain people will not allow nor let the right people run the confederation the way it should be.

Honestly, it will take a lot more than $10 million and divine intervention from many governments and the generosity of corporate sponsorships

Just this week, i was watching the a spanish sports show and they were talking about Dominica (Mexico's next rival). 2 of televisa's reporters followed the team from Bahamas where they beat Bahamas 3-1 and qualified to the next round. The field in the bahamas is not even a stadium. Its just an open sandlot. Not one single erected building. They had to use tents as locker rooms. No type of medical facilities near by, nothing. Then after the game they flew back but had a layover in San Juan, Puerto Rico. There, the reporters showed the team sleeping on the floor of the airport because they didnt have money for lodging much less a warm meal. Then they showed them back in Dominica. Well from there the reporters had to walk about 2 kilometers because the stadium (sandlot) was not near and couldnt really be reached by car. I thought the playing conditions in the bahamas were bad, the ones in Dominica were worse. The field was un even, no grass, no buildings, no locker rooms, the goal post didnt even have nets. Then the report showed a couple players during thier daily routine. One is a car salesman. The other one is a fisherman (works 15 hour days for about 20 buck ..dont remember if its 20 a month or a day). Then they should this poster near their training facility (the one I mention earlier) and it had a drawing of Dominica's future stadium.. an all purpose stadium (track, soccer, etc)

I really felt bad for those players. I respected them because of their dedication and love for the game, but I felt bad becaue they dont deserve that. And as I was watching that drawing of their stadium... i start to think.. "i have seen that drawing before about 2 years ago.." I also start to think, a country of 60K and 90+% of the population is below the poverty level... how will they maintain that stadium? How will they maintain those cost? Can the people afford to spend 2-4 bucks for games?

If corporate sponsors do pick up the bill, will it go to the right people (and by that will the players see the money so they dont have to work 15 hour days or so they dont have to sleep in the airports)... but honestly, sports are great, but if corporate sponsors can afford to dish out some money, i dont think it should be towards football. I think it should be directed at building schools and improving the infrastructure (roads, etc)

[JG]

Spend most of the cash on prize money for CONCACAF competitions...save a little bit to hire a good arsonist to torch Inter-Forever headquarters.

[Various Styles]

hire a good arsonist to torch Inter-Forever headquarters.

I believe SUM is that Arsonist.. :D :p

[Mel Brennan]

Of course, this money from FIFA has nothing to do with, for example, the $$$ received from television and various other activities...

[Mel Brennan]

I'm interested in your ideas. The lack of them, fleshed out in any meaningful way, may say much about why we have the Confederation we have...

[MasterShake29]

A Gold Cup modeled on the Euro (including qualifiers for all nations) would be nice. That and get every CONCACAF competition on U.S. English language, Canadian, and Mexican television.Get a real web site too.

[ChrisE]

I'm interested in your ideas. The lack of them, fleshed out in any meaningful way, may say much about why we have the Confederation we have...

I imagine that I'm not the target for this thread, but i'm totally unclear on what CONCACAF actually does.

Besides

organizing the Gold Cup
organizing the Champions Cup
organizing Olympic Qualifying

what is it that the governing body has jurisdiction over/has the ability to change?

Is this tax-free $10 million dollars something that CONCACAF doesn't currently get (I'm presuming it is)? What are (approximately) CONCACAF's other revenues?

[sidspaceman]

A Gold Cup modeled on the Euro (including qualifiers for all nations) would be nice. That and get every CONCACAF competition on U.S. English language, Canadian, and Mexican television.Get a real web site too.
So it doesn't matter if the competaions are on Central American and Caribbean T.V as long as people can watch the matches on ESPN?

[Elninho]

I imagine that I'm not the target for this thread, but i'm totally unclear on what CONCACAF actually does.

Besides

organizing the Gold Cup
organizing the Champions Cup
organizing Olympic Qualifying

what is it that the governing body has jurisdiction over/has the ability to change?

Is this tax-free $10 million dollars something that CONCACAF doesn't currently get (I'm presuming it is)? What are (approximately) CONCACAF's other revenues?

I wouldn't say CONCACAF organizes the Gold Cup - it seems to delegate that to Inter/Forever.

Other things that Jack Warner is accused of doing may shed some light on what CONCACAF is supposed to be doing... Warner supposedly earmarked $1.3 million of CONCACAF's money for coaching courses that, according to the Mexicans at least, never happened. CONCACAF is supposed to handle some amount of coach and referee training/certification. CONCACAF handles a lot of GOAL funds as well - Warner is accused of diverting a lot of GOAL contracts to his own companies.

I think CONCACAF could save a lot of money if it weren't going into Jack Warner's pockets... some of the savings could go to subsidizing travel costs for small national teams.

[MasterShake29]

So it doesn't matter if the competaions are on Central American and Caribbean T.V as long as people can watch the matches on ESPN?
It matters, just not as much as the matches being on a TV station I get (and I have digital cable, so this shouldn't be hard) in a language I speak.

Besides, they might already be on Caribbean TV for all I know.

[sidspaceman]

It seems to me Matt that you would run CONCACAF for the benefit of US fans and US soccer and not for the greater good of the region.

[MasterShake29]

It seems to me Matt that you would run CONCACAF for the benefit of US fans and US soccer and not for the greater good of the region.
Geez, jumping to conclusions are we? Let's see, what are the two biggest markets in CONCACAF? The U.S. and Mexico of course. Mexico is already a big soccer country, the U.S. (fan wise) is not. If you grow the sport in the U.S., you get more money, which you can then spend on growing the sport and supporting the sport in other countries in the region.

It's very hard to do that if people can't see CONCACAF games in their own language if they can see them at all.

It's not as if getting the games on U.S. TV will somehow stop the growth of the game everywhere else.

[sidspaceman]

Not jumping to conclusions. However, after reading your post about the Gold Cup being held in the summer is bad for MLS and you not caring if other countries can watch the tourneys. I came to the conclusion that you could care less about the rest of the region.

[MasterShake29]

I never said I don't care if other countries can watch the tourneys. Please re-read what I wrote.

If the GC is going to be in the summer (which is fine), having it more often than once every four years is bad for MLS. Either MLS has to suspend operations each time, or games go on without its top stars, which screws the fans. Once every four years is the international standard and that is understandable. More often than that is not.

You will also note if you read the posts in my personal forum that I support having the U.S. and Mexico participate in Gold Cup qualifiers, which I would imagine would help revenue-wise the countries drawn with them.

[ZeekLTK]

Some money should be spent on trying to bring players 'back home' who grew up in small Caribbean countries, went over to Europe to become better players, and then never came back to play for their country. I think there are a lot of players for the Netherlands that were born in Surinam or Netherland Antillies, and I'm sure England, France, and Spain have their fair share of Caribbean players as well... someone from CONCACAF needs to step in and find a way to get these guys to come back and play for their countries. They will make them better, and the more good teams we have, the better off we'll be.

[sidspaceman]

I never said I don't care if other countries can watch the tourneys. Please re-read what I wrote.

If the GC is going to be in the summer (which is fine), having it more often than once every four years is bad for MLS. Either MLS has to suspend operations each time, or games go on without its top stars, which screws the fans. Once every four years is the international standard and that is understandable. More often than that is not.

You will also note if you read the posts in my personal forum that I support having the U.S. and Mexico participate in Gold Cup qualifiers, which I would imagine would help revenue-wise the countries drawn with them.
Your right I jumped the gun. I hope you accept my apology.

[ChrisE]

Some money should be spent on trying to bring players 'back home' who grew up in small Caribbean countries, went over to Europe to become better players, and then never came back to play for their country. I think there are a lot of players for the Netherlands that were born in Surinam or Netherland Antillies, and I'm sure England, France, and Spain have their fair share of Caribbean players as well... someone from CONCACAF needs to step in and find a way to get these guys to come back and play for their countries. They will make them better, and the more good teams we have, the better off we'll be.

You're suggesting players be bribed?

[Mel Brennan]

Don't think IFS; they are done and dusted. Think "in-house," as the former CEO of IFS and a fellow from Blazer's interactive gambling/gaming ventures (and, before that, the England 2006 WC bid performances) now administer properties from the inside, at the direction of Blazer.

[Ronaldinho11]

It would be bad for MLS but it is for a good cause in my opinion