The America's Confederation

[scmcbride1]

With some fairly recent comments from Sepp Blatter about him treating America as one region as far as the World Cup rotation is concerned it got me to thinking. Would it be beneficial for the two confederations to form into one? Having perhaps 8 spots for The America's as far as The World Cup is concerned. Staging their own regional championships. Maybe instead of The Gold Cup and Copa de America maybe The America's Cup or something along those lines? A super champions league for club teams. With CONMEBOL being the second strongest soccer confederation but the lack of money and great stadiums would be increased with the addition of The CONCACAF nations which in my opinion is the 4th best confederation behind Africa and ahead of Asia. Could you imagine an America's Cup similar to Euro (insert year here). It would be a 45 country confederation. Imagine this............America's Cup qualifying, actually something to look forward to after the World Cup instead of waiting for a whole year and waiting for The Gold Cup or Copa de America. I have even figured out a scenario. 16 Teams, USA qualifies as hosts. The tournament would obviously rotate with USA, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina hosting the first four America's Cups. Whether it would be staged in the year following the World Cup or two is debateable. You would have the 45 entrants widdled down to 40 with the lower teams playing tow legged play in matches. Then the 40 teams are broken into 10 groups of 4 teams each. You play each team home and away for a total of six games. The 10 group winners automatically qualify for The America's Cup along with the host which would make it 11. And the group runners up play in a two legged play off with one other group runner up for a total of 5 different play offs. Then the winners of each play off advance to The America's Cup. The final tournament would have 16 teams and 4 different groups with the knockout round having 8 teams advance via the group winners and runners up.Could you imagine a USA-Brazil semi-final in E.Rutherford, NJ and a Mexico-Argentina semi-final in Chicago, IL with the final to be staged in Pasadena, CA. Obviously all these are just examples, but I can see this being very beneficial to both confederations. And if Sepp and FIFA are going to treat them as one confederation why not act as one confederation. Feedback is welcome.

[Cabiño]

How many times has this subject been discussed.:confused:

[MoRado]

How many times has this subject been discussed.:confused:

75.000 times

any new input in this topic? or should we close it?

[Cabiño]

I say close the mothersucker.

[scmcbride1]

If you don't want to discuss it then don't comment on it and it will trickle down the first page sooner. If your interested in actually discussing it comment with something relevant to the topic instead of lame comments that aren't that original.

[MoRado]

If you don't want to discuss it then don't comment on it and it will trickle down the first page sooner. If your interested in actually discussing it comment with something relevant to the topic instead of lame comments that aren't that original.

this topic has been discussed a lot of times, you can do a little search and check the old threads, anyways you are more than welcome to post here, cool

[olephill2]

It's an interesting idea, SCMcBride, but I'd be sad to see a lot of Central American and Caribbean nations basically get boxed out of any chance at a World Cup. The South American confederation is deep with lots of 2nd tier solid teams (Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador, Columbia) behind the 2 giants. Off the top of my head, here's how I would rate the top-10 if you combined the confederations:

1) Brazil
2) Argentina
3) Mexico
4) United States
5) Uruguay
6) Paraguay
7) Ecuador
8) Columbia
9) Costa Rica
10) Chile
11) Trinidad & Tobago

I think in a combined confederation you might be more likely to see CONCACAF nations boxed out in qualifying.

[ECUNCHATER]

I like it the way it is. The USA pretty much has a free ride to the World Cup with the 3.5 spots that are given to CONCACAF. Someone wrote an article on Yanks Abroad about how they are getting bored with US Soccer and the over played rivalry with Mexico. I think this is the reason these topics pop up a lot. Outside of Mexico and Costa Rica no one else has been a threat to US Soccer since we got things rolling back in 1989 and have gone on to 5 straight World Cups. Those top 2, or 3 teams in CONCACAF will always dominate the little islands that are hard to find on a map. The big complaint with the USA right now is the B squad that will go to Copa America to play Argentina. This is the highlight of the summer for the US fans and they want the best team there even though the Gold Cup is what matters. A lot of people feel the same about the Club side of CONCACAF. I think the fans of the CONCACAF nations would love to get to play teams like Boca Juniors every year in a tournament. The members of CONCACAF just need to be proud of who they are.

[Latin Pride]

It's an interesting idea, SCMcBride, but I'd be sad to see a lot of Central American and Caribbean nations basically get boxed out of any chance at a World Cup. The South American confederation is deep with lots of 2nd tier solid teams (Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador, Columbia) behind the 2 giants. Off the top of my head, here's how I would rate the top-10 if you combined the confederations:

1) Brazil
2) Argentina
3) Mexico
4) United States
5) Uruguay
6) Paraguay
7) Ecuador
8) Columbia
9) Costa Rica
10) Chile
11) Trinidad & Tobago

I think in a combined confederation you might be more likely to see CONCACAF nations boxed out in qualifying.

USA ahead of Uruguay, Paraguay, or Colombia? Defenently not.

And I wouldnt put T&T ahead of no Conmebol team

This would be more likely......

1) Brazil
2) Argentina
3) Uruguay
4) Mexico
5) Paraguay
6) Colombia
7) USA
8) Ecuador
9) Chile
10) Venezuela
11) Costa Rica

[Trin]

cuz we all know this list means sooo much.

BTW thanks for putting T&T sooo high on your list olephill2. U probably will change your mind soon though I'm sure :(

[olephill2]

USA ahead of Uruguay, Paraguay, or Colombia? Defenently not.

And I wouldnt put T&T ahead of no Conmebol team

This would be more likely......

1) Brazil
2) Argentina
3) Uruguay
4) Mexico
5) Paraguay
6) Colombia
7) USA
8) Ecuador
9) Chile
10) Venezuela
11) Costa Rica

You really think that Columbia, Paraguay and Uruguay would all have their way with the USA on neutral soil? I'm not talking about Copa America because the US will be in hostile territory. I think the USA is every bit as good as these three teams, though the margin is very narrow. I may have overrated T&T a bit, who knows.


cuz we all know this list means sooo much.

BTW thanks for putting T&T sooo high on your list olephill2. U probably will change your mind soon though I'm sure :(
haha. Sure enough T&T looked pretty bad in the Gold Cup but they were playing with their B or C squad, so you can't really judge them. I thought they had a good showing in the World Cup and that's why I put them in the top-11 and ahead of teams such as Peru, Venezuela & Bolivia. But with a lot of their old guard getting old (Dwight Yorke, Stern John, Shaka Hislop), I can see them slipping in the next few years.

[lfsr1544]

You really think that Columbia, Paraguay and Uruguay would all have their way with the USA on neutral soil? I'm not talking about Copa America because the US will be in hostile territory. I think the USA is every bit as good as these three teams, though the margin is very narrow. I may have overrated T&T a bit, who knows.



Except for Venezuela, it's hostile territory for ALL teams. Some will fair better then others, agreed, but it's neutral. So we'll have to see. I think the US is a solid 2nd tier team- ala 5-6 teams from Conmebol. No one will have their way with the US. It's a solid tourney for all teams, including Brazil.

[Soccerprep]

The more ideal thing would be if the US, Mexico, or someone else "bolted" for CONMEBOL, this is similiar to what Australia has recently done, there would never be a "merger" because of the problem mentioned with those tiny carribean islands. OFC, remains despite the loss of its only consistent performer, the CONCACAF would continue, it may lose several places, lets say for instance that the US and Mexico left, but Canada, Central America, Carribean, and the South American countries remained. I could see the CONCACAF keeping 1.5 spots, and the other two following the US and Mexico to CONMEBOL giving them 6.5 places.

I do not want them to leave however, because I question the US chances of qualifying at a consistent rate.

[Goofy]

Sportswise it would be good, but we know better... the COncacaf WC ticket is easy to get, and as long as we keep them Caribbean teams happy and abundant, we will continue to qualify underqualified teams to the world cup. :)
Besides, what will Mr. Warner and Mr. Blazer do for a living otherwise? Wasn't Chuck Blazer a prospector?

[ipaman]

ideally for me would be an new America's confederation and a new Caribbean confederation(like Oceania). You can include the northern SA countries in Caribbean as well.

7.5 spots for the Americas federation and .5 spots for Caribbean. the Caribbean half would play the Americas half.

Meanwhile Oceania would also have .5 slots too. Asia would have 3.5 or 4.5. Their halves would play each other for the world cup slot.

I think this setup geographically would create rivalries in the play in games. Keeping the play in games near each other would make it easier for the teams involved too. Unlike last year when Uruguay had to play Australia...

I think also that the Caribbean would have a legitimate shot at the world cup if T&T becomes the "KING OF THE CARIBBEAN". I think T&T could match up well with the 8th place team if they continue to improve. They would face a team like Costa Rica, Columbia, Chile, Ecuador, or Venezuela.

You'll also get a much better true Copa America and Copa Caribe.