Fixing WCQ for the Western Hemisphere

[RevFan]

In order to further soccer on this side of the pond, I think it is time for Concacaf and Comenbol (or whatever thier accronym is). To get together and form a new federation. The Carribean teams, minus Jamaica and perhas others such as T&T, should not be included. They should form a new federation similar to Oceana and recieve half a bid to the finals in which they would have a playoff with the new federation's last qualifier.
In my opinion US and Mexico would be in the top third of countries. The added quality of competition would also give the US new rivals and enhance our play to the quality it takes to succeed in the finals.

[Davids26]

First, combining the two confederations will never happen, and has been discussed ad nauseum here and on the CONCACAF boards.

Second, if it did, the Carribean nations would not be left out.

[greenbill]

Originally posted by RevFan
In order to further soccer on this side of the pond, I think it is time for Concacaf and Comenbol (or whatever thier accronym is). To get together and form a new federation. The Carribean teams, minus Jamaica and perhas others such as T&T, should not be included. They should form a new federation similar to Oceana and recieve half a bid to the finals in which they would have a playoff with the new federation's last qualifier.
In my opinion US and Mexico would be in the top third of countries. The added quality of competition would also give the US new rivals and enhance our play to the quality it takes to succeed in the finals.
This won't happen.

[RevFan]

It makes too much sense too never happen. There is no UN Mandate that states: "countries with populations of 50,000 must be allowed into a soccer federation with countries with over 200 million people."

[appoo]

They'll combine N.America and S.America when they combine Europe and Asia.

[cmonaco]

Originally posted by RevFan
It makes too much sense too never happen. There is no UN Mandate that states: "countries with populations of 50,000 must be allowed into a soccer federation with countries with over 200 million people."

Aside from the fact that practically this will never happen, I don't think it really makes sense even in theory. Why? Because the entire point of regional confederations is to be regional. Or continental in this case. To put an entire hemisphere in one WC qualifying group, or one confederational tournament, goes against the entire reason for having regional confederations in the first place.

Most confederations are faced with similar problems: minnows and big fish, tiny countries and superpowers. CONCACAF is a special case with all the tiny Carribean nations. Yet small countries like Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica, and Trinidad have had success playing regional powers USA and Mexico in the past, and Canada with its huge population has had trouble vs. nations a fraction of the size.

I'm all for more inter-confederation integration, such as North American teams in Copa Libertadores and Copa America. But as far as WCQs go, the regions should remain seperate.

One logical step would have been having the WCQ 1/2 spots from CONCACAF and CONMEBOL play off against each other, and having Oceania and AFC do the same, since it makes more regional sense.

[soccerWx]

I'm not sure about combining the N and S America into 1 confederation, though it would certainly boost the competition for the US and hopefully make them better.

However, Some of the smaller island nations should combine their resources to from one team. Does Grenada, with a population comparable to a medium sized city, really have a much of chance in hell at making the Hexagonal, let alone the world cup?
The solution: Combine the lesser antilles (perhaps save Trinidad) into one team, and gaurantee a spot on the team for each of the islands. That way, they can be somewhat competative.
Of course, the impetus for such an action would lie with the islands themselves. If they are happy with their (sorry) lot, then so be it.
Having a combined L. Antilles team would have the benefit of elmininating many if not all of the first wound games, and give more flexibility for possible play-in (tie-breaker?) (1/2 spot?) games against S. America.

Go Wolfpack!

[elainemichelle]

Originally posted by soccerWx
The solution: Combine the lesser antilles (perhaps save Trinidad) into one team, and gaurantee a spot on the team for each of the islands. That way, they can be somewhat competative.


That makes things turn all political. I know I'd much rather get the glory (however minimal it may be) by playing for my country.

[GoHawks4]

Stupidest. Thread. Ever.

http://www.geocities.com/behindsimpsons/piccbg.gif

[jamison]

moved to concacaf, as not horribly related to USMNT.

thx.

[Concacaf]

We dont want this thread here either.. stupiest things I have read in a long time! Take it back to the USNT forum! hehehe..

[Concacaf]

HEY Revfan,

This same issue has been discussed before.. several times by the way.. if u scroll down their a tread about this. This is what I more or less wrote there.

First and foremost... Why would they play together if they are 2 different continents? And 2 different federations! I dont see a single good point. Why not play Africa and Asia together then? Or Europe and Asia which used to be a single continental mass millions of years ago.

There is already a tournament which gets the best of the best to compete agaisnt each other and that is the WC. The USA, CR are constantly being invited to the Copa America and Mexico is a permanent participant from what i last remember, so there u can compare each federation. And the top S. American team gets to play in the GOld Cup and brazil is normally invited.

CONMEBOL and Concacaf have long enough WCQs as they are, why make them even longer? ANd in case u would like to do something like the Europeans wihch has different groups and only the best qualify and second best from each group have to play a play off that really sux, many times the more deserving teams dont make it if they are drawned in a particularly difficult group.

Our qualification might be long.. but at the end the best 3 always qualify since they have to play each and every top team. This is the most importnat point.

Let me illustrate for u. One year the USA, Honduras, Jamaica and Belice are in the same group. Well it just happens that Honduras played really well and Jamaica had an excepcional team.. the USA finished 3 and is out of the world cup qualifier. Meanwhile if the had played the long hex as we do now they would end 4th. behind Mexico, Honduras and Jamaica.. the best 3 teams qualify and the 4th (USA) can play the play off.. In this way our federations truely sends the best teams.

keep things as they are.. CONMEBOL in the South and us in the North.. separated as you can see in the map.

A truely Copa America, which would be merger between the current Copa America and Gold CUp would make more sense.

[denver_mugwamp]

Originally posted by GoHawks4
Stupidest. Thread. Ever.


Certainly a contender. But wait, how about if we combine the confederations but put them into different divisions. Then we could have relegation!

[Concacaf]

One more thing.. just considering leaving out the Carribean nations from playing for a ... listen careful "WORLD CUP" spot is utter nonsense. The word "world" must have some significant meaning in all of this. merging them all up is also quite silly !!!

WHY? would it be a good idea to create a tiny federation for just the weak caribbean teams and automatically give them a half a spot...what do u know maybe Cuba has a good 2 game series against Australia and qualifies.. but it will not be fair to Jamaica ( a stronger team) to battle it out with brazil, argentina, mexico, Usa, chile, peru!

I guess one of the reason u would like to merge concacaf and conmebol is for the USA to get more exposure and improve their game by playing brazil and argentina.. but on the other hand u would be doing the exact same oposite to the small caribbean countries which will never face any considerable opposition in your scheme and unlike the USA they dont have the cash pay for friendly matches against top notch teams..

for all of this reasons i think the idea or merging concacaf and conmebol is stupid.

[Concacaf]

Originally posted by RevFan
It makes too much sense too never happen. There is no UN Mandate that states: "countries with populations of 50,000 must be allowed into a soccer federation with countries with over 200 million people."

IT doesnt make "too much sense".. in fact it makes no sense.. a country with 1000 population has a much right as a 200 million people population to fight for a "WORLD" Cup spot.

[themodelcitizen]

Why is it that the CONCACAF system allows for teams to be eliminated in 2 or 4 games? Is it because many of the smaller teams simply can't afford scores of away games that are certain to end in defeat? I remember Barbados was running out of money in their run at the semifinals last time around. A group system similar to the UEFA structure would seem like a fairer system to teams like Haiti and Cuba who may suffer the axe rather early in this campaign against more seasoned opposition. I suggest 4 groups of 6 and 2 groups of 5 CONCACAF teams. The 12 winning and runner-up teams go onto the existing semifinal round. Getting eliminated in 10 games seems like it would be fairer to countries deserving a better shot than 4 games, half of them against giants like Mexico. It would also give the federations some much-needed activity, but the real question is if most of the Caribbean FAs can afford participation.

[SJJ]

Originally posted by Scott Ferguson
Why is it that the CONCACAF system allows for teams to be eliminated in 2 or 4 games? Is it because many of the smaller teams simply can't afford scores of away games that are certain to end in defeat?... A group system similar to the UEFA structure would seem like a fairer system.... I suggest 4 groups of 6 and 2 groups of 5 CONCACAF teams. The 12 winning and runner-up teams go onto the existing semifinal round. Getting eliminated in 10 games seems like it would be fairer to countries deserving a better shot than 4 games, half of them against giants like Mexico....

For the record, Africa and Asia also had a round of home-and-home elimination, but they did theirs before the draw.

I had wanted the semi-final phase to be h+h, instead of groups, because with the fourth-place playoff, it would mean a lot more matches.

Yes, the really tiny nations couldn't do that much travel. Your method of group play right from the start will cause a lot of 15-0 (or worse) games that do more to skew the tie-breakers than help anything.