Hey everyone, Those who frequent the Concacaf Champions League board know that I like to set up threads to keep up with qualifiers and the like, and this isn't to undercut anyone who normally does that here. But I just thought that it would be useful to have a catch-all thread to make it easier to keep up with the latest news. So, for now we know this: there will be a Gold Cup next summer, and the winner will get to play in the 2013 Confederations Cup in Brazil. Also, it's been announced today that the 2011 Final will take place in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Therefore we know that the US will be the main host, although it's still possible that they could have host cities from the outside, e.g. Toronto or Mexico City. And as for the participants, the US, Mexico and Canada are all automatically qualified (former champions/no qualifying round for North America). The Caribbean championship kicks off in August, with the final tournament to take place in Martinique in November - Martinique and Jamaica (defending champ) are already in the final round, awaiting six other qualifiers, and the four that make the semi-finals will be the Caribbean teams in the Gold Cup. And finally, the UNCAF Cup of Nations will presumably take place in Jan/Feb 2011. Any other news? Feel free to share/discuss.
Teams that are in the 2011 GC 1. USA 2. Canada 3. Mexico 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. (As of July 22, 2010)
The Caribbean starts it qualifying Aug 18 withe the first round of the Caribbean cup. Central America will begin its qualifying with the UNCAF championship in Panama in January I believe.
Is it in Panama? Thought it was in Costa Rica. Either way, BET they will setup Panama with ES and they will be super motivated for a payback for 6.22.2008. I like it though, it's great for the NT to play a team who is fired up.
Last I heard, Costa Rica's supposed to host the UNCAF Cup since they were planning on using it to debut their new Estadio Nacional.
I know Panama is also trying to debut a stadium as well but I guess they changed it to Costa Rica. Its hard for me to find much info on the UNCAF I can't even find the dates. If it is in Costa Rica it will be nice to see their new stadium.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNCAF_Nations_Cup_2011 says Panama is hosting but the source of that is February 1. Somebody should change Wikipedia if there is a source saying Costa Rica is hosting.
Well, the latest info I can find is this blog entry (which references an article from the Guatemalan football federation) that would confirm that Panama will be the host.
Talk to Warner, dude. He's the guy always pulling the strings. You island guys need to start a viscious campaign to get rid of the guy. Just oust him from his position of course
It would be nice if Canada, the US and Mexico each hosted a group - those "automatic qualifications" would be even more justified. Canada could have the games in Toronto and Montreal, Jamaica in TO and Honduras in Montreal are always a big draw. After that, I could handle all the knock-out games being in the US.
That would be incredibly unfair to everyone else. Automatic qualification and home field advantage to teams that are already stronger then most. Short of rotating the tournament this is the fairest way to play it. The USA is almost like playing in neutral territory given that most countries in CONCACAF have sizable immigrant populations in the states.
Since MexiGOL decided to give me neg rep for this post, and since I couldn't reach him/her personally about it, I'll just provide the clarification here: I'm not saying that the blog entry itself proves anything, but rather that the article it references, straight from the football federation of Guatemala (where UNCAF is located), seems to provide confirmation that Panama will host the next UNCAF tournament - now known as the Copa Centroamericana.
Yeah that is the most recent news I have been able to find the name change and Panama hosting. However others on here have said the host was moved to Costa Rica so they can debut their new stadium, I guess will get more news as the tournament approaches.
Canada has huge immigrant populations as well. In the latest World Cup qualifying cycle, Jamaica in Toronto and Honduras in Montreal had nearly half the fans in attendance.
The problem is that Canada can't host the full tournament at the moment so why give them that much of an advantage? If we could rotate the tournament then that would be great but giving Canada and Mexico home field advantage is tipping the tournament way to much in their favor. Canada already qualifies automatically isn't that enough? How would that be fair to other competitors like Costa Rica and Honduras? The tournament would get even more predictable and meaningless if they did that.
In a perfect world, you would be correct, the Gold cup would rotate among the 45 Concacaf members (or is it 35?). But we all know that many countries are too poor and do not have the facilities to hold the tournament. Also Jack wants to make money so he wants to host the tournament in a place where concacaf will make money (USA). I believe that the way the bidding for the Gold cup works is that a federation needs to guarantee concacaf a certain amount of Income, if the Gold cup does not make that money, the federation is responsible for the balance. El Salvador could host it if they guarantee Jack his piece of pie.
jack warner is one of the biggest mafia in FIFA , I am hoping someone from Canada or elsewhere in the Caribbean could run against him . that person have to highlight these sub regions, UNCAF: must carry all votes , N America ; must get Mexico & Canada , Caribbean : Must split the caribbean and get atleast the Greater antilles , anything from the lesser antilles is a bonus .
LOL! advantage??? You mean like the advantage El Salvador gets playing the gold cup in LA?? Or the advantage Mexico gets everywhere? If you're so concerned about advantages then maybe the tournament should be held in alaska. Canada is already at a massive DISADVANTAGE every Gold Cup because the United States isn't filled with Canadians unlike every other gold cup participant. Even if Canada hosted a group the crowds would still be half against them. Does that sound like an advantage to you?
Jyda there are actually lots of Canadians in the USA, they just don't seem to be interested in going to gold cup games. If the games were in large Canadian cities I am sure its very possible that Canadian fans would be out numbered but that doesn't mean playing at home isn't an advantage. In fact if Canada played Costa Rica in Toronto Canadian fans might even outnumber Costa Rican fans. Besides the USA and even Canada has played at home against teams like Mexico with Mexican fans outnumbering them and gotten favorable results that they don't get in Mexico. I mean you are honestly going to say playing at home isn't advantage! I am all for playing in Canada so long as they host the whole tournament until then what possible reason is there for giving them home games? That Hispanic fans in the USA are more interested in seeing their national teams play then Canadians? Besides teams like El Salvador don't play all their games in L.A. they rotate to cities like Columbus were theoretically Canadian fans could come out and get close to the same number of fans. Having Mexico and Canada host their group games adds nothing in terms of competition, in fact it will just tip the balance in Canada and Mexico's favor more. Why would you want to make the gold cup less competitive? The best teams in CONCACAF struggle against Mexico in Mexico now you want teams that can't even get in hex to play there?
I would like to dedicate this to MexiGOL. http://www.concacaf.com/page/GoldCup/NewsDetail/0,,12813~2143243,00.html
Hopefully you don't get a neg rep this time. The Carribean Cup's start date was moved to October 2nd. Here is the Wikipedia page with the new groups and new dates: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Caribbean_Championship