Theoretical question

[Blue Lou]

If Greenland were to apply to become a member/affiliate/associate of CONCACAF meaning Greenland club sides were given the right to compete in the CONCACAF competitions, would you be happy with the outcome?

I'm interested to read people's opinions, I'm currently reading the book Outcasts so the idea popped into my head. :)

[IASocFan]

I wouldn't care. I think it would be difficult for Greenland to support a team, and expensive for Greenland and the smaller countries to travel to each other. I sure also that they would have a limited calender window for hosting games. I can't imagine they would be very competitive with any of the top 12-20 teams in CONCACAF.

[Crazy_Yank]

Are their any Greenland natives play top level football any where?

[MoRado]

greenland penguins are about to join the MLS :D

[MoRado]

greenland penguins are about to join the MLS :D

[Azuran]

greenland penguins are about to join the MLS :D

Let's try to be realistic here, there are no penguins in Greenland.

Greenland Polar Bears is a more fitting name.

[MoRado]

Let's try to be realistic here, there are no penguins in Greenland.

Greenland Polar Bears is a more fitting name.

u sure? not even one?

[devioustrevor]

I wouldn't have a problem with it, but how would it effect Gold Cup qualifying. The three North American teams automatically qualify as past Champions, so would Greenland have to qualify through Central America or the Caribbean?

One possible hang-up would be CONCACAF having to go from 4 Official Languages (English, French, Spanish, and Dutch) to five (adding Danish) just to add a nation of 50,000 people.

The preliminary rounds and first group stage of World Cup Qualifying always take place in Spring-Summer, so I don't imagine there would be any weather worries for Greenland hosting games as they'd be unlikely to ever make it the Semi-Final round.

It could conceivably work, but there is no way the Greenland FA could ever afford to undertake a World Cup Qualifying campaign. They could possibly manage Gold Cup qualifying as I'm sure the Danish FA would give them the money for that, but I just don't see them ever having the money (short of large oil/natural gas deposits being found inside Greenland's EEZ) to be an active member of any Confederation.

[Antonio81]

Their site (http://www.gbu.gl/), for anyone who can translate:D

It really wouldn´t make much of a difference, just another small team, though they would have a hell of a home field advantage.

[ZeekLTK]

For the Champions League, I think Greenland would probably have to qualify against Canadian clubs (the current qualification is only between three teams, so adding the champion of Greenland would balance it nicely with a group of 4). Taking on Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver would be very tough so it's unlikely they would get past that stage, but it would be well earned if they do.

I don't think World Cup Qualifying would change at all. Greenland would obviously be ranked very low (since they're new) so they would play in the preliminary round against the other small teams and then have an opportunity to advance from there.

For the Gold Cup, technically Bermuda is part of "North America" too but they still compete in the "Caribbean" region, so I don't see how Greenland doing the same would be any different.

They would have a lot of travel costs though, and it would be difficult for some nations to play against them (let's say they had to play Aruba in the first round of qualifying or something, that'd be tough for Aruba to afford to travel all the way to Greenland), but other countries elsewhere have to do it... How does Asia and Africa handle massive travel? If Maldives and Malawi can handle several cross-continent trips I think some of the smaller Caribbean teams can afford one visit to Greenland.

[Michele]

It could conceivably work, but there is no way the Greenland FA could ever afford to undertake a World Cup Qualifying campaign. They could possibly manage Gold Cup qualifying as I'm sure the Danish FA would give them the money for that, but I just don't see them ever having the money (short of large oil/natural gas deposits being found inside Greenland's EEZ) to be an active member of any Confederation.

Why would Denmark pay for Greenland's national team? If they decide to go independent, fine by me, but it also means that you will have to do by yourself. We don't pay for the running of Faroe Islands' team either even though they have the same affiliation to Denmark as Greenland does.

I would actually like to see Greenland go independent in footballing terms and have them play some of the super-minnows in early rounds of WC/Gold Cup qualifiers. My only knowledge of their strength is a game against Tibet played in Denmark in 2001. In that match, they won 4-1 because of a much better stamina than the Tibetans. I'm not sure they would have the same advantage against 'real' national teams.