News: Club World Cup to Expand; Confederations Cup to End

Once they decided to expand the ACN, it became absolutely crucial to move to the June/July period. It takes a whole week longer to play a 24-team tournament compared to a 16-team one. So clubs would lose players for a big chunk of the season every 2 years if they kept it in January/February.

 

I have heard rumors that CAF is thinking about playing some of their tournaments in the USA and China.
No joke.

 

I would probably go to a match if that happened (US hosting), but that does seem a bit bizarre. It wouldn't do as well as Copa America. I don't see the tournament gaining any traction whatsoever in China. France would seem a more logical choice if they must leave the continent for whatever reason.

The US should push harder for hosting a U-20 World Cup. Its CONCACAF's turn to host one in 2019 and US is the only big country in CONCACAF not to host the tournament yet. But they don't seem interested for some reason.

 

They would have to rig it a lot like the CONCACAF does with the Gold Cup gearing towards population correlation and double headers.
Most of the Groups would have to be in New York/NJ at either the NFL stadium or the MLS stadium.
Nigeria can set up shop in Texas since that is where the biggest Nigerian population is.

Georgia, Louisiana, New England, DC/Maryland and California also have African populations.

 

maybe they could have a replacement of up to 6 players from their roster, once going through to the knock-out stages, too.......

 

It is actually a good idea for those who say there's too many summer tournaments and players need rest.

 

An even better idea is to scrap such tournaments altogether. Having such a rule in place is basically an admission that the tournament is not very important.

 

If a Confederation wants to have two tournaments and it is approved by FIFA that is all that matters to me.

 

This is probably the case, but Mexico and USA have not met in a GC since the final of 2011. In the past 3 GCs Mex or USA have been eliminated by another team.

 

True, but I suspect that's partly due to one of them fielding a much weaker team because they (Mexico) were involved in the Confederations' Cup in the same summer.

 

This year, yes, Mexico had a C Team. In 2015 it was the US that was knocked out by Jamaica. In 2013 Mexico fielded a B Team, and was knocked out by Panama.

 

That is really interesting. A lot more money for beuracrats line their pockets, the players too, probably wouldn't complain of a tour of the USA. International soccer is getting more and more of an exhibition-like quality to it so this just fits that trend. When did CAF hold the first one? This could be the CAF Copa Centario, except get the right year and put it in French.

 

I love you Paul but that o e line written by some media shop geek proves nothing.

 

We cannot let this happen guys.

DEFCON 5. Tweet them, email them, call them (I've called their Swiss office before), do anything you can to prevent this, this makes me sick to my stomach.

Imagine canceling the Superbowl and substituting it with a quadrennial SB tourney featuring the conference champs from the past 4 years. That's how lame this idea is.

 

I miss the Intercontinental Cup, and if this means it comes back, then I'm glad the CWC will be every four years.

 

I don't know if this change would mean a comeback for the Intercontinental Cup, but I am interested as to why you prefer the Intercontinental Cup.