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

I'm for a Global Nations League. Sadly Infantino is blinded by the club game and he has been blocking the GNL. Already in 2017 UEFA wanted to work towards a GNL in 2021:

The underlying message from UEFA leaders as they briefed global soccer officials in recent weeks is that the workload on players will not significantly increase as the GNL does not significantly add to the burden on national teams. That could win over the powerful European Club Association.

The little-regarded eight-nation Confederations Cup, used as a preparation event a year before the World Cup, is already set for the scrapheap. That frees up a space in the international calendar in June 2021, one FIFA already has its own plans to fill.

FIFA will not want to risk the World Cup being devalued by introducing a new competition for international teams. What FIFA seems to want is a bigger slice of the club game.

In 2018 Ceferin added: That future was meant to include the Nations League expanding into a global competition. Ceferin revealed plans to do so were in jeopardy. He said: "I'm slowly losing my patience because the moment we presented a fantastic project, some personal interests and some ego issues came in."

Due to FIFA there won't be a GNL in 2021 and 2023 seems a bit optimistic as well. Maybe 2025, we'll have to wait and see. Until that time we have the UNL to warm to the idea of a GNL.

The UNL is a resounding success, so far, when comparing the quality of play to what we used to see in friendlies. Still, the audience needs to grow a lot to come anywhere close to viewership numbers for EURO matches (or the World Cup). So not an unqualified success but give it time, the very first UNL final has yet to be played.

 

It's hard to tell who you'll face in a future GNL. Especially after a few editions/reshuffles you might still have to beg for more games against the elite. Already in the UNL's first edition World Champions France failed to reach the final event and Germany were relegated. Despite all podium places in the World Cup being won by European teams none of them will feature in Europe's NL finals. There's not much between the teams that did, which is the idea, "national teams will be playing more consistently at their own level." The focus should be on well-balanced games rather than on wanting to play against the elite.

The top sides in Europe haven't faced each other that often in competitive games, usually are drawn into different groups. Before the UNL it were mostly friendlies/competitive experience was limited. "World Cup winners neighboring each other" in Europe didn't have the same luxury as the ones in South America I guess. Also, FIFA basically handed Mexico a free ride to the World Cup. They, in particular, had plenty of chances to improve. Yet Mexico has set several WC "records" and only ever won one knockout game (even then they were the hosts). TBH it's cruel that FIFA keep doing this to Mexico. Enough is enough.

 

absolutely, same as with any new competition, it takes some time until it is recognized by everyone, and the more money inside, the sooner it happens!

for me this is clear upgrade from confederation cup, and even if they keep it as a world cup test/ dress rehersal for the world cup host (from 2025 on) it will be better competition than confed cup ever was!

in the end, as with anything else .... the future will be the best judge!

 

You can't blame anyone for that but FIFA themselves! Those people gave WC to Qatar, those people are introducing 48 teams WC with 16 groups of three and multiple possible "Gijon" games, half of those people are either jailed or prosecuted, some of them didn't even show up for Miami meeting ... you can guess why, and ALL of them are as greedy as anyone with the ober chief in place being the worst one!

I think that Club World Cup is one of those decissions that may have "more money in FIFA pockets" as main cause, but is by far not the worst one. I even think it has decent chance to become significant competition in world of football, but you just simply got to be careful and suspicious after any FIFA decission in recent years!

 

My problem is that the new CWC is basically just UEFA CL Junior. At least the current CWC was its own unique competition. Granted, I guess if nobody was watching it something needed to be done. But I will never get that excited about the new CWC since, no matter how they try to sell it, it is just a mini-CL.

The UEFA NL and potential Global NL are unique ideas, so those I can get excited about.

 

When they send 4 teams by confederation (champions and subchampions of the last 2 year) that gonna get more real/rational/deservefull; 8 europeans is a joke; but it better that nothing.

 

Everyone gets excited about different things, it is good that way and future will prove what is really worth!!"
I truly follow only my team, and I watch World Cup and Champions League in full, everything else I follow mostly by reading the scores and, if nothing else to do, I watch a game or two from big leagues or other competitions. Everyone else sticks to their preferences as well ... that's the beauty of football!!!

 

Wouldn’t that mean that the team that won the most recent CL has the least chance of qualifying for the CWC? If there are 4 different winners, I would just have a playoff between the CL winners of Year 1 and Year 2 a couple of weeks before the CWC.
[If there are just 2 different CL winners, I would have a playoff between the 2 most recent finalists not already qualified]

Pros:

-The teams that qualify will tend to be stronger (who knows how good a team that won the CL 3 years ago is now, but CL winner from this year or last year is probably still good).

- No need to waste everyone’s time with play-in game(s) until we know its necessary (i.e. there are 4 different CL winners in the cycle)

- The playoff game acts as a quality-control measure since the champion from year 1 or year 2 might suck by the time the CWC rolls around.


Cons

- Unfair to the winners of years 1 & 2, but unavoidable when you have 3 entrants from 4 years

 

there will be some sort of ranking, I am sure about that. how is it going to look like, no clue! maybe most recent CL finalists plus 6 best ranked teams over last 4 years or simmilar ...

 

Maybe in Uefa, but in conmebol any 3rd place Libertadores team is better that any shitty Sudamericana champion.
Imaging Caribbean Club Championship representing Concacaf in Club World Cup? Funny as hell

 

I would just have the CL Year 1 and Year 2 winners meet (if necessary) a couple of weeks prior to the CWC.

Another question specific to the inaugural CWC would be, should they just invite the most-recent 3 CL winners? I mean, all Year 1 CL winners already took part in the 7-team CWC. In fact, in CAF and AFC we are already into Year 3 right now!

Yeah, I see your point. But there's less money in it for FIFA if they invite teams like Sevilla and Shakhtar Donetsk. I think the possibility of EL teams getting in ended when the UEFA allocation dropped from 12 to 8.

 

Sevilla or Shakhtar Dontsk would make this more interesting, but, sure... money. Why don't they just invite who will make the most money and call it, say the International Champions Cup or whatever that club series is called?

 

Yeah, true. I guess for CONMEBOL, CAF and AFC the playoff could take place as early as the December prior. CONCACAF in mid-May, which is still earlier than we would know all the UEFA participants.

 

EL winners could very well have qualifying games for European competitions on their plate. E.g. if the expanded CWC were to be held this summer both Sevilla (now 6th in la Liga) and Man United (now 5th in the PL) could very well end up in qualifying for next season's EL. Atleti OTOH will most likely earn a direct CL spot through the league.

 

It's more than "half a ticket" because the Year 1 and 2 winners would get in without playing each other as long as the four years didn't have different winners. The 64th UEFA Champions League is in progress. Making 16 groups of Years 1-4, 5-8, and so on through 61-64, a majority (9 times) had at least one repeat winner within the four years.

Year 1 winners already took part, but the format should be made for CWCs that will be every four years after none of the clubs went to an annual one.

 

I hear ya. Whatever format they choose multiple clubs are going to be pissed since FIFA will be deciding on a qualifying format when we're already half-way through the qualification period!

What makes it funnier is UEFA teams will be pissed if they have to compete while clubs from the ROW will be pissed if they get excluded. Expect a mess!

 

Oh this is all just technical twaddle. Just make the whole thing simple and FIFA-friendly.

Last winner of relevant confederation CL qualifies. Remainder of Continental qualifiers chosen by size of money they can guarantee for FIFA.

Give up the pretence of caring about anything other than a pile of money large enough to hide your ill-gotten yacht underneath.

J