New WCQ format offered by Mexico and CA

[EvilRick]

Jan 22nd

Mexican Federation officials met with their Central American counterparts to discuss a new World Cup qualifying format for 2006.

Instead of organizing three groups of 4 teams before the hex, there would be 2 pre Hexagonals.
CR, Mexico and USA would qualify automatically to these pre Hexagonals, but the rest would
have to hold regional knockout rounds from which:

4 Central American nations qualify.

4 Caribbean nations qualify

The 5th place Caribbean, the 5th place Central American and Canada would play a three way
elimination round to top off the 12 contestants.

Those 12 teams then get divided into 2 groups of 6 of which the top three qualify to the final Hex.

Apparently they reached this format unanimously and will be present it to the rest of CONCACAF.

[Captain Canuck]

Originally posted by EvilRick
Jan 22nd

Mexican Federation officials met with their Central American counterparts to discuss a new World Cup qualifying format for 2006.

Instead of organizing three groups of 4 teams before the hex, there would be 2 pre Hexagonals.
CR, Mexico and USA would qualify automatically to these pre Hexagonals, but the rest would
have to hold regional knockout rounds from which:

4 Central American nations qualify.

4 Caribbean nations qualify

The 5th place Caribbean, the 5th place Central American and Canada would play a three way
elimination round to top off the 12 contestants.

Those 12 teams then get divided into 2 groups of 6 of which the top three qualify to the final Hex.

Apparently they reached this format unanimously and will be present it to the rest of CONCACAF.

If I have this figured out correctly, this system would have it that every decent Central American side would qualify for the semi-finals (Costa Rica automatically, and the next four likely to be Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador & Panama), which would mean Canada would be put into a group with Belize or Nicaragua & the 5th place Carribean team (top 4 presumably Jamaica, T&T, Cuba & Haiti, so let's say, Bermuda maybe).

Well no wonder the Central American countries are in favour of this!

That's if everything goes according to plan. A fluky result here & there in the regional qualifiers and Canada could be in a group with Honduras & Jamaica & once again, given no second chance initially if they slip up just once when their opponents are already on their second chance (shades of qualifying for 1990 & 2002 from Canada's perspective). Can't say as a Canadian that I like the "no initial second chance" part of this set-up, when everyone presumably gets one.

[El CHarro_NEgro....]

Originally posted by Captain Canuck
If I have this figured out correctly, this system would have it that every decent Central American side would qualify for the semi-finals (Costa Rica automatically, and the next four likely to be Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador & Panama), which would mean Canada would be put into a group with Belize or Nicaragua & the 5th place Carribean team (top 4 presumably Jamaica, T&T, Cuba & Haiti, so let's say, Bermuda maybe).

Well no wonder the Central American countries are in favour of this!

That's if everything goes according to plan. A fluky result here & there in the regional qualifiers and Canada could be in a group with Honduras & Jamaica & once again, given no second chance initially if they slip up just once when their opponents are already on their second chance (shades of qualifying for 1990 & 2002 from Canada's perspective). Can't say as a Canadian that I like the "no initial second chance" part of this set-up, when everyone presumably gets one.

If Canada can't beat Honduras and T&T then they don't deserve to be at the World Cup.

[DoyleG]

Now I'm, starting to belive why the the new MNT nickname is El Cry.

[Captain Canuck]

Originally posted by El CHarro_NEgro....
If Canada can't beat Honduras and T&T then they don't deserve to be at the World Cup.

That's not the issue - why do other teams get an initial second chance before they can be eliminated but not Canada?

Would you say that if Honduras can't beat Panama, they don't deserve to be at the World Cup? They finished 2nd to Panama in their preliminary group of three for 2002, yet were given a "2nd chance" to progress to the next round, & ended up finishing 4th in Concacaf - nowadays that's likely to get you into the World Cup. Under the proposed format, Canada would not get that second chance that all the other teams would seemingly get.

[EvilRick]

Originally posted by Captain Canuck
That's not the issue - why do other teams get an initial second chance before they can be eliminated but not Canada?

The issue was addressed.
Canada does not fall in the Caribbean or Central America, therefore it can't take part in elimination.
In the other hand, those 5th places may came to play at a disadvantage against Canada (More chance for injury, red cards and less strength?)

[Benedict XVI]

North
Central
Carribean


seems canada is the only entry in north america that doesn't go straight to the hex. so they should get north america's spot.


this screws Canada. big time. forget it. they should just put Canada in the central american or carribean zone - it's stupid the way Canada is treated.

[Wolves_67]

This plan looks like it's not worth the paper it took to print it. Highly unfair. Hopefully, CONCACAF will see that it is also and stick with the current plan.

[Crazy_Yank]

I think the current system of qualifying is fine the way it is. No need to change. Last time around we had 5 of the top 6 teams in the hex. That's about as close as you'll get to the best 6. If Canada has their best players availible making the hex shouldn't be a problem under any format.

[JG]

Yeah, just put Canada in the Central American or Caribbean zones. That way they have the same chances as everyone else.

Two hexes = 20 games. Kinda tough to fit on the international calendar, although it seems like an okay format to me on paper.

[DoyleG]

Originally posted by Wolves_67
This plan looks like it's not worth the paper it took to print it. Highly unfair. Hopefully, CONCACAF will see that it is also and stick with the current plan.

You put your faith in CONCACAF?

[Sachin]

Is there a link to this?

The format sounds ludicrous.

Canada gets 2-4 matches to determine if they make the semifinals while even the 5th place teams from the Caribean and Central America get 6-8 (presumably).

That doesn't make sense.

And then having 20 matches per team through the semifinals and finals?

It takes about 1 year to play the Hex and another year to get through the preliminary and semi-final rounds as it is.

Under this proposed format it would take 1 year for the confederation finals (2005), 1 more year for the semi-finals (2004) and at least 6-8 months for the preliminary matches (2003). Someone better start letting FAs know they have qualifying in about 2 months.

This idea is incredibly stupid, even by the standards of this region.

Sachin

[RalRhino]

I feel that CONCACAF should go ahead a stick with the system they've been using the last 2 times around. Sure, its much more complicated than any other confederation's format, but I feel it did put the best 6 teams in the final Hex.

It also avoids the problems of trying to seed teams prior to qulaification like they do in UEFA or Asia.

Although, one alternative would be to do six groups (five with six teams and one with five) and have the six group winners advance to a final hex. You could put one the six finalist from the 2002 hex into each group and then randomly place the other teams.

[GRUNT]

What a crock of crap. FIFA is already unhappy with CONMEBOL requiring 18 matches to qualify. CONCACAF already requires 16 (more for some teams), and now they want to increase it to 20 or more? Brilliant.

Please post a verifiable source.

[Martin Fischer]

Originally posted by EvilRick
The issue was addressed.
Canada does not fall in the Caribbean or Central America, therefore it can't take part in elimination.
In the other hand, those 5th places may came to play at a disadvantage against Canada (More chance for injury, red cards and less strength?)

This is a complete non-answer. Canada should have a more difficult route to qualify because they lie in North America, not the Caribean or Central America? Ridicuolous. The obvious answer would be to change the system to make it fair to all participants instead of saying that the map made me do it.

Just stick with the current system and let the Central American teams demonstrate their worth.

[Revolt]

This is stupid. CONCACAG gets 3 1/2 this time, right?

Why not have some pre-qual to get rid of the truely stupid and horrible teams. (All recent WC qualifiers & Canada as recent Gold Cup holders get a bye.)


Then, play three groups of four or five - as every other region (except SA) does to settle the three spots.

Lastly, a 3-way playoff for the 1/2 spot.

[sidspaceman]

Items dealing with future competitions dominate the committee’s agenda. The most important piece of business will be decision on CONCACAF’s qualifying format for FIFA World Cup Germany 2006, which must then be ratified by the game’s governing body. A number of various proposals have been put before the members of the Executive, with the final decision expected.

http://concacaf.com/news/article.page/1198

[Fedz]

As we are divided into 3 areas why not have 3 groups north central caribean have qualifiers for those regions and the top two go on to a hex.

[Daniel from Montréal]

Originally posted by Fedz
As we are divided into 3 areas why not have 3 groups north central caribean have qualifiers for those regions and the top two go on to a hex.

Because the regions are vastly uneven in depth and level.

The North Region only has 3 countries, Mexico, USA and Canada, while the Caribbean has like 20-30, from T&T to Montserrat!

[sidspaceman]

CONCACAF is examining four plans heading into Friday's meeting of its seven-man executive committee. The goal of the organization is to increase the number of qualifiers, especially for the smaller countries in the 40-nation group, some of whom have been eliminated after just two qualifiers. That could be accomplished by having group play at an earlier stage.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=257114&cc=3888