Alejandro Dominguez, president of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), admitted on Wednesday the possibility of including European Latin countries in the Copa America. http://www.abola.pt/nnh/ver.aspx?id=627782
France, Italy, Spain, Portugal we could see the end of a south american team winning it for a few tournaments
I doubt Fifa would allow it, therefore clubs would not have to release their best players...meaning that no chance they win it
Copa America should include Croatia, because they used Latin language for centuries, especially in southern Croatian regions (Istra, Dalmatia). Southern and northern Croatia are not the same. Majority of Croatian footballers came from south... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_Latin_literature Eight centuries with Venetian Republic (1000 - 1797). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venetian_Dalmatia Dalmatia (Roman province) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalmatia_(Roman_province) Republic of Ragusa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ragusa For some reasons, Slavic language prevailed, although southern Croats are with dark skin, dark eyes and dark hair. Slavs are blond people. It would be interesting to meet with South America teams. If they include France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, I see a lot of historic reasons here. The question is, could players that don't have distant origins from these countries accept France, Italy, Spain, Portugal (African, Aboriginal communities). This idea also aims that European countries win Copa America. Europe World Wide project. Personally, I don't like this idea. Copa America should include only South American countries, without Central American teams. You forgot to mention Romania, Moldova, Gibraltar, Malta, San Marino. Also Belgium could participate, French language is official, Wales was fully romanised during history, Switzerland has Italian, French and Retro-Roman official languages, similar to Luxembourg...a lot of African countries use French as their official language. Some Asian countries still have Portuguese memories - Casino Lisboa in Macao is pretty much visited institution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance-speaking_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_Lisboa,_Macau The question is, which criteria are included: language, history (Magellan, da Gama, Dias, Colombo, Cortez, Bolivar, Vespucci...), the beauty of football if you include (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy), or just money and advertising to see the best players in one spot (Ronaldo, Iniesta, Neymar, Messi, Vidal, Suarez, Griezmann, Hazard, Ricardo Rodrigues (SWI)...Copa America will become just like the Champions League. Basically, the Champions League became Club Copa America, players, coaches. If they include only language, this could become interesting...official language of UEFA is French. Also, with that criteria, I could participate very easy.
Some scholars believe that the Latin influence over Albanian is of Eastern Romance origin, rather than of Dalmatian origin, which would exclude Dalmatia as a place of origin.[1] Adding to this the several hundred words in Romanian that are cognate only with Albanian cognates (see Eastern Romance substratum), these scholars assume that Romanians and Albanians lived in close proximity at one time.[1] The areas where this might have happened is the Morava valley in eastern Serbia.[1] /quote Distant cousins but still related...
Dalmatia had its own language, called Dalmatian language, variation of Latin language. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalmatian_language Coastal part of Montenegro was included as Dalmatia, Bay of Kotor for example. It was under the Kingdom of Dalmatia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Dalmatia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Dalmatia#/media/File:Dalmatia_(Kingdom).svg You seem very well informed. Greece also had Latin speakers, even today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance-speaking_Europe#/media/File:Romance_20c_en.png Observe continental Greece. Aromanian and Megleno Romanian groups. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Aromanians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Aromanian_settlements Muzachia name is a place of distant origins of footballer called Musacchio. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mateo_Musacchio Muzaka or Myzeke Although, some Albanian places have obvious Slavic names: Divjake - eng. Wild, Croatian: Divlji Cerkovine - the root Crk is in words Crkva (Church), crknuti (drop dead) Grabjan - Grab is a plant, tree Gradishte - Grad means City Pobrat - Brat means Brother, Pobrat means someone who became a brother, without genetic and blood. Selenice - Selo means Village Carashove - similar name exists in Romania. Croats live in Caras Severin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caraș-Severin_County Interesting mixtures of influences, languages, traditions. Balkan Peninsula has Roman, Greek, Illyrian, Slavic, Hungarian, Ottoman, Vlach mixture. Three scripts existed: Latin, Cyrillic, Glagolitic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glagolitic_alphabet
We see the pattern. https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...xpand-48-teams-fifa-gianni-infantino-suggests Even today, cca 10-15 countries play nicer football which is actually watchable. Imagine 48 teams. European football is not progressing at all. Same old 7,8 countries play.
48 teams is way too many, especially since Africa,Asia and Oceania would send a bunch of crappy teams. I mostly agree with you on the UEFA depth but at least the last Euro showed a few non-traditional teams playing well.
EURO 2016 had 24 teams, maybe 10 teams played well. A lot of defensive teams. The quality of European teams is fictional. Some teams were great before 10,15 years, they became weaker, so those bad teams look better compared with them. Scotland, Ireland, England, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Czech Republic, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Turkey, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Romania - they had great teams. Teams with weaker character just came closer, nothing else: Iceland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Slovakia, Greece, Switzerland, maybe Cyprus, Israel, Slovenia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania...there are no real derby matches in European qualifications....only France - Netherlands, maybe Germany - Czech, Scotland - England (based mainly on their tradition), Spain - Italy. UEFA plan would be great only if those upper teams have the same quality with these new teams...
http://www.abola.pt/nnh/ver.aspx?id=671280 CONMEBOL Portugal and Spain will be invited to the Copa América 2019 20:36 - 10-05-2017
After reading various online legitimate newspapers on this matter (both in English and Spanish; from both South American and Europe), I'm 99% sure that this is how it's going to go down from now until the next 2 decades at least... Starting with this upcoming 2019 Copa America, which will be held in Brasil, all future tournaments will have 16 nations participating. The tournament in Brasil will be the last one that will be held in an odd year. In order to 'reset' the tournament right away and have it coincide with the Euro (apparently FIFA is in favor of this because European clubs will have to release their international players only summer instead of two consecutive summers), they will have a Copa America in 2020 in the USA (because, among others things, of their financial success with the Copa America Centenario 2016). As for those who are questioining what kind of teams will the European nations bring for 2019, I think that being how this Copa America will probably be the only and last tournament (at least for while) that will have European nations, I'm thinking that these nations would love to 'steal' one from South America; wouldn't that be a punch in the face, especially in Brasil of all place. Anyway, going forward, Conmebol will introduce a new scheduling format as to who will host the subsequent Copa Americas, which on a personal level, gives me hope... IMHO, Bolivia's 'rotational' spot was taken away unfairly and so I hope this 'reset' will give Bolivia an opportunity to get it back and get it back soon... hopefully as soon as 2024! If this is accurate, then I don't think there will be another 'Copa America Centenario' for a while (at least by name, host, and if it would ever return) but I think the 2020 Copa America will mirror the Centenario from 2016 and it will be just a great, if not better, since it will once again not 'compete' with the Gold Cup so USA, Mexico, and other North and/or Central American nations could bring their 'A' team if they chose to do so. In fact, since the Copa America would now fall in an even year, USA, Mexico, and company could continue to bring their 'A' team (again, if they chose to do so). From a level of play standpoint, I think this a great move as every continental tournament will potentially have the 'A' team for every participant. What's more, starting in 2020, when we don't have the summer of the World Cup, we can enjoy two tournaments of nations every summer and it would most likely be more competitive than before. This 'guaranteed' 2 tourneys every summer (with the highest level of play) would include the League of Nations that Europe will be introducing in 2018. It will be a promotion/relegation type of tournament that will have it's 'pool stage' from September to November and it's 'Final Four' competition in June. There are talks of Concacaf (and I'm sure Conmebol would soon follow afterwards) in creating their own League of Nations. If this happens (I'm sure it will), this will be eliminate 'friendlies' and their 'lack of importance. All those events plus the World Cup qualifying matches, it pretty much guarantees a higher level of competition/tournaments for us to enjoy every year. To get a visual idea of what I'm talking about, this is what it would look like... 2017 Gold Cup / Confederations Cup 2018 World Cup / League of Nations (UEFA Pool Stage) 2019 Copa America Brasil / Gold Cup / League of Nations (UEFA Final Four) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2020 Copa America USA / Euro 2021 Gold Cup / Confederations Cup 2022 World Cup / League of Nations (UEFA Pool Stage) 2023 Gold Cup / League of Nations (UEFA Final Four) 2024 Copa America / Euro 2025 Gold Cup / Confederations Cup 2026 World Cup / League of Nations (UEFA Pool Stage)