Imagine Brazil, Mexico, USA, Argentina and other teams from both western hemisphere confederations competing first in qualifiers then in a Copa America held every 4 years, same years as Euros. This tournament could potentially rival the Euros in prestige and profit. If this structure existed now the teams above would be preparing for Copa America qualifiers instead of sulking about their World Cup exits like England, Spain, Poland etc who are preparing for their Euro qualifiers.
forgive me for being sooo ignorant, but are u trying to compare mexico and the us to brazil and argentine?????? ??????? is funny how u say it, you say mexico, usa, brazil, argentine "and other teams" you make it sound as if mexico and usa were at the same level of brazil and argentine, you made it sound as if mexico and usa are superior to those other teams, thanks for made me laugh, that was a very good joke what make u think that mexico/usa are at the same level of brazil and argentine and better than all the other 8 south american teams????? you really are pathetic, let me tell you, mexico has been competing in south american competences for more than 10 years, and you know what they have achieved?????? absolutly nothing, no copas america, no libertadores, no merconortes, ABSOLUTLY NOTHING, and in the meantime "other countries" like paraguay and colombia have won copa america and libertadores, and let me remind you, since mexico takes part of copa america, none south american team plays that tournament with their best men, so its really pathetic that a team which according to you is at the same level of brazil and argentine, and can't win a copa america where every team sends substitutes and what can u tell you about the usa, is even worse than mexico, you and Mexico go and play baseball let me tell you what "those other countries" have achieved Chile - third place in 1962 w.c Uruguay = 2 w.c Paraguay olympyc football silver medal Peru - fifth place in 1970 w.c i think mexico and the usa are the only nations in the universe who have hosted a w,.c and didn't finish even in the fourth position! that's shameful, even south korea did it! and trust me, absolutly nobody in south america is gonna waste their their time playing with our best men to play to mexico and the rest of concacaf's islands, we only play with our best men our beautiful qualifiers!
sagy, thanks for the correction, i really apreciate it but you see, france took their revenge in 1998 spain was fourth in a w,c, don't remember which one japan, ok didn't do it, but south korea did it.
What are you guys arguing about again?... I'd like to see the Copa America turn into a 16 team tournament with the 6 teams from the hex filling out the tournament. Also, the tournament would have to be hosted in the north at some point. That would be good enough for me.
Somebody is awfully bitter. I guess being from Chile and participating in soccer forums does that to you. What with the prestigious history of Chilean soccer....Oh wait, does Chile have a soccer team?
Mexico finished 6th (undefeated) in 1986 after losing on PKs to the runner ups - nothing to be a shame about. They are also on a streak of 5 consecutive 2nd round appearances (1986, 1994-2006, there were disqualified from 1990 WC), only Brazil, Italy and Germany can claim longer streaks. Again, nothing to be a shame about. Regardless the original statement of is wrong. Bottom line, a 16 team Copa America with the 10 CSF teams and the top 6 CONCACAF teams will be a great tournament to watch and could rival the Euro Championships. I fail to understand why anyone from CSF will have an objection to this type of a tournament.
If it's a pan-American tournament, why would there be any consideration given to region? The European Championships doesn't guarantee six places to the Eastern Bloc.
Because there are only 10 teams down there and there is no way they will approve a tournament that gives any chance that one of them won't be in it. The 6 teams limit to CONCACAF teams is so the tournament can have an even 16 teams. Right now they invite 2 CONCACAF teams for a 12 team tournament. We're just saying increase that to 6 and eliminate the Gold Cup. We can use the WC Qualifying to determine what 6 should make it.
I wholeheartedly agree with this -- we need a rough equivalent of the Euro tournament in this hemisphere, and Copa America + guests doesn't cut it. Neither does Gold Cup + Brazil's reserves. Copa America should just take over the whole hemisphere. Maybe we should have qualifiers, though not as sprawling as the Euro.
Why name a tournament "Copa América" if it does not include the entire continent? I think that the integration of all American nations into this tournament would benefit all involved at all levels and, most of all, football itself.
I'm very much in favor of a 16 team tournament. And it should be held the same years as the EUROs. Would also like the African Cup of Nations to go every four years as well. Don't know if weather conditions would allow for the schedule to be moved to June-August. I sometimes wonder when the EURO tournament is about to begin if players from Africa and America wished for a similar type of tournament to compete in too around the same time. Asia already does, right?
This is a fine idea, but the best next step would be to have an "Intercontinental Championship" involving everyone except Europe. Bring in 4.5 African teams, 4.5 CONMEBOL teams, 4 Asian Teams and 3 CONCACAF teams etc. for a field of 16 that would rival the European Championship. Have World-Cup style qualification rounds. This is the only way to design a tournament that Brazil and Argentina would send their top players to. Of course, the ultimate goal is to subvert and destroy the European Championship, which is the cause of much soccer misery as it singlehandedly prevents what should be a 2 year World Cup cycle and leaves us with crap like the Gold Cup.
I guess you're being ironic, but only a minority want a World cup every 2 years and it's not our "fault" that we have many good teams in Europe.
Copa America actually invites two non-CONEMBOL teams to the tournament, but the US never goes because of the MLS. All that has to be done is have the US and Mexico accept the invitation and then you have what you're looking for.
Put it this way, would you watch: GROUP A Venezuela (hosts) Colombia United States Cuba Group B Brazil (seed) Uruguay Costa Rica Chile Group C Argentina (seed) Paraguay Hondurus Peru Group D Mexico (seed) Ecuador Canada Bolivia because that's what the cup would look like, picking things randomly. The only problem I can see is the lack of any real *great* first round matchups.
uhhmm buddy...You think if Brazil and Argentina could play every single NT game that they actually wouldn't. Unfortunately the NT 'dont feed the kids', so they have no choice in sending a 'B' team. The same goes for every team pretty much in Conmebol. But as a point of interest, if you look at the last CA in Peru, Argentina had more then 2/3 of the players that were called up to WC '06...and Brazil had Adriano basically win the cup for them..
Not really. It's every two years... not even a set procedure. These various invites don't really help the prestige either (Japan was invited before??? WTF).