Haiti is already an established Caribbean giant with WC history. They had their golden years in the 1970s and now just under achieve thanks to the instability in their country.
That, and the Federation's bizarre coaching picks. In the last two decades, only three stand out as being any good: Luis Armelio García (led us to the 2006 Caribbean title), Isaac Cantero (led a solid Haitian side into the 2013 Gold Cup), and of course, Marc Collat (2015 Gold Cup run getting us into the Copa América playoffs, leading the u-20 girls to the World Cup finals).
That could be an intense, entertaining, and unfortunately potentially ugly rivalry in a decade or so...
Now official! Ballou Jean-Yves Tabla has finally decided to commit to Canada over Ivory Coast. He currently plays with Barcelona B and has trained with the main team while playing with them in the international cup. Canada's midfield just got that much more talented with the 19 years old. Canada's new young core: Alphonso Davies (soon Bayern Munich) Jonathan David (Gent) Ballou Tabla (Barcelona B) Liam Millar (Liverpool U23) Alessandro Busti (Juventus U) Cyle Larin (Besiktas) Lucas Cavallini (Puebla) Zachary Brault-Guillard (Lyon) Marcus Godinho (Hearts) Ballou ✅#CANMNT 🍁 #CNL #TheDreamStartsNow ▶️https://t.co/N7gLYCC2Mc pic.twitter.com/Pti59P5bIL— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) September 25, 2018 Canada's definately back
If Canada manages to win away games in SPS, San José or Kingstown, then the gigant will have woken up. The next CNL, Gold Cup and WCQ will be good entertained.
Canada is the obvious choice, with their own league starting up plus the Canadian teams already playing in MLS and USL providing opportunities for homegrown talent. But my other choice is a hypothetical because they aren't FIFA members: Guadeloupe and Martinique. I think it's pretty remarkable what they've accomplished in the only international competition they are able to compete in, the Gold Cup. Since they can't gain full recognition, they'll always be limited without the same amount of financial resources, the fuzzy rules around eligibility of players, and access to games. It's a shame because they could provide good competition within Concacaf if they had proper support. Even their clubs are doing well despite being amateur sides, with Club Franciscain from Martinique beating former two-time Caribbean champion Central FC from T&T.
The Nations League gives Guadeloupe, Martinique, and the other areas that aren't FIFA members more access to games. The Caribbean Cup and its qualifiers are gone, but those were done in groups at one site. Now teams get to play more home and away games.
RD trends to underachieve in basketball. PR, with its smaller size, is better. But I agree, it's probably more popular.
Costa Rica`s number 1 sport is football. If they ever found a way to improve their league...they could be concacaf`s sleeping giant
There's only so much revenue clubs can make in a country with Costa Rica's population that doesn't make TV money from other countries. Wikipedia says Costa Rica has 5,003,393 people. Looking at the list of countries sorted by population, there aren't many countries with fewer people than Costa Rica who I think have a better league than Costa Rica. There are Croatia, Uruguay, and Cyprus. Beyond that there are European leagues that could be better than Costa Rica but are in the bottom half of the UEFA country coefficients. These include Slovenia, Iceland, Ireland, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Looking at countries with 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 people, there are Belarus, Switzerland, and Austria. All of the top ten leagues in UEFA are in countries with over 10,000,000 people.
Canada is number one. Aside from them, DR is like Panama and has population and wealth. They started a league in 2014. Still a long ways to go. The Panamanian league in comparison is 30 years old. Another possibility is Cuba. They have a long history of sporting accomplishments. The problem is that they lack money.
DR would go up a tier instantly if they could only get Mariano (Real Madrid) and Firpo (Betis) to play for them.
Have to agree with others. Based on population and GDP, Canada is the clear under-performer - and then the DR and Cuba. I think the Nations League and expansion of the Gold Cup should help some of these other nations get more competition and experience. Also, as pipingol pointed out, some of these teams don't get the players when eligible elsewhere. A couple of things could help here: CONCACAF should change gold cup rules so Martinique, French Guiana and Guadeloupe don't run into problems like last Gold Cup - where players who played for France aren't eligible. They should be exceptions since FIFA doesn't recognize them. Also, in general, I think the lifetime commitment to 1 country hurts the smaller countries. I'd like to see FIFA allow dual-citizens to change every 4 years - just stipulate you have to make your commitment at the beginning of each 4 yr cycle (can't swoop in at the end).
There's a simpler reason for that. We don't have a domestic league until 2019. Japan, South Korea and Australia would be among rich nations that got a domestic league started within the last 30 years and the results we're virtually immediate. They have yet to miss a World Cup appearance since starting a league. Canada has won the CONCACAF championship twice and been to the World Cup once without a domestic league. The Canadian Premier League starting next year levels the playing field in the region and open up new heights for Canada. Because of that, Canada is the country set to grow rapidly in resources and talent.
Jamaica is the obvious answer. quick questions, if a player from FIFA team scores 10 goals against Martinique does it not count on their record?
I would think so, it's just it wouldn't be an "official" game. For example, say Leon Bailey shows up and plays for Jamaica vs. Martinique, since Martinique isn't a FIFA member, Leon Bailey isn't cap-tied even if it was in an official competition like the Nations League or Gold Cup.
Got it now thanks, quick question since u brought it up. CONCACAF Nations League is an official competition because it is a continental qualifier and doubles up as Gold Cup Q Is UEFA Nations League an official competitive competition since it isnt Euro qualifier?
I would think that any game between two members of FIFA that isn't a friendly or youth game would be official.
Japan might be among the top five countries in baseball players produced regardless of what country the players are playing in, but they're much better than DR in soccer. Of course, Japan has much more people. The DR had Cibao win the CFU Club Championship.
Has anyone mentioned Montserrat? Of all the teams in the Nations League with six points, they have the easiest opponent in the last round, meaning they'll probably finish with nine points. I see them ending up in the Gold Cup spots.
The OFC Nations Cup sometimes doubles as World Cup Qualifying, and it has 8 out of 11 teams, which is the highest percentage in any confederation other than all CONMEBOL teams in the Copa America. I don't think OFC should count. 8/11ths of Concacaf including non-FIFA members would be 30 teams, and plenty of countries with tiny populations would qualify for a 30 team Gold Cup.