It's weird. I mean I watch a ton of soccer. I even watch Serie D soccer in Italy from time to time but the Club World Cup never really interested me. I have no desire whatsoever to see it for some reason.
That might be the reason. Outside MLS and occasionally CONCACAF champions league games, mostly Europe.
As someone who is about to attend his third Club World Cup (and the fourth in 2018) let me say that you are missing out. Especially the non-European matches are competitive and entertaining.
Generally the best games are CONCACAF vs AFC vs CAF vs CONMEBOL. The South American champions are hardly favored these days. That said Real Madrid - Kashima Antlers was great last year.
I love CWC and I really hope they won't mess with competition's frequency. Do something good, FIFA, for Gods sake! Something like new time slot or like new format. If people don't like it this way, how will they start to like it if it is played once in four years?
Its actually pretty decent. African teams and such that you never otherwise see. It'd be great to have it in summer, but ok when it is. They should not mess with the format. Every game is an elimination game and it is short enough that European teams actually go.
UEFA-led plan for global soccer competition every two years: The biggest-ever soccer competition for 223 national teams, peaking with a series of eight-team knockout tournaments in June of every odd-numbered year. It is a vision of the UEFA-led Global Nations League project which was disclosed on Friday.
Interesting. One good thing is might axe the expanded World Club idea and keep the current format. I like the quote in the article- "These constructive discussions involve our national associations, European football stakeholders, all confederations and of course FIFA, with whom we have a very good relationship," UEFA said. "No decisions have been made at this time." Bold added.
190 teams play a play-in round, 33 teams get a bye to the 1st Round. Same amount of games as the WC for bye teams, just 1 more for play in teams. Not bad, go with it, call it the FifA Cup.
That would go against two of the main objectives of the global (and UEFA) nations league which is 1) for NTs to play more matches against teams that are around the same level as them, and 2) for 'smaller' NTs to have competitive matches that mean something.
Quick question: why do the anonymous officials talking up this Nations League refer to 223, when FIFA has only 211 members? Are non-FIFA teams going to participate? And if so, what's going to determine their eligibility? If it's a minimum of Confederation membership, then all the French DOM-TOMs in CONCACAF (alongside Sint-Maarten and Bonaire) will get to play as well
lol Its a bit of a monstrosity, innit? But I don't have a problem with it as long as the preliminary rounds are regional. The smaller nations don't have the money to fly all over the world , but if we're just talking about scheduling games against regional teams that they might've played anyway except now its going to be a competitive match instead of a friendly, I don't see any problem.
It does sound like they'll add a dozen teams, probably all Division 7 teams (as 7 is the most holy of numbers let's hope Vatican City are in). ATM no decisions have been made and we can only speculate. Maybe by March we'll hear more about it.
Then there's the question of where to seed them, since they don't have a FIFA ranking to speak of. For instance, over here in CONCACAF, Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana should be ranked in the 15-20 range based on their Caribbean Cup and Gold Cup performances...
I know. I don't think this Global Nations League will happen, too expensive for the small NTs, but it would be way better than the horrific quadrennial CWC. I'd pay money to prevent that from happening. Plus, I like the current friendly system, there's no need to play the same intra-confederation opponents over and over again. It gets tiring.
That's what you think - who's to say that after the WC expansion, you'll even get to play the same intra-confederation opponents ad-infinitum? I'm seriously thinking that once 6 straight berths are available in CONCACAF, we'll switch to a final round of 18 in WCQ - 3 Hexes, top 2 in each go to the WC finals, the two best third-placers playoff for the berth in the intercontinental playoff tournament. With that, the Global Nations League and continental tournaments (Gold Cup and/or Copa América) would be the only time the likes of Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and the US get to face each other with any regularity. Now take those four (the current best in CONCACAF based on FIFA ranking), put them in a group with only the winner going to the Global Nations League finals (Division A) and the worst team getting relegated, and that would be hella exciting...not to mention a fairer way to determine who's #1 here than the Gold Cup.
Out of the last 36 teams in CONCACAF WCQ Semifinal groups (12 each for World Cups 2010, 2014, and 2018), 8 teams didn't win any of their 6 games. I don't think teams from 13th through 18th should play in the final round. Furthermore, the Hexagonal eliminates one-third of its teams, and when CONCACAF gets 7 combined qualifying and playoff spots, having 2 Hexagonals would eliminated 5/12ths (more than one-third) of the teams. Having three Hexagonals would eliminate a much higher percentage of the teams than the current format.