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

For those that don't like FIFA, can you name a sports organization that isn't corrupt to some extent? And would having a league be more powerful than the federation, like the NBA is compared with FIBA, be a good thing for international competitions? Every sport has its scandals, whether its PEDs, match fixing, player safety, violence, bribes, etc. However, FIFA is more organized and proactive than any other sports federation and has turned soccer into a global financial juggernaut that even makes it worth corrupting. While the IOC can hardly give the Olympics away anymore, the World Cup is still highly prized. Add to that the way FIFA has harmonized the country vs club dispute with an international calendar, promoted soccer at all levels through the Women's World Cup, the youth World Cups and other forms of soccer like futsal and beach soccer, and developed the game through GOAL initiatives.

 

I'm interested in how you would like MLB to let the World Baseball Classic change. There's also a Baseball World Cup (unless it stopped recently) that's meaningless because it doesn't include MLB players. The World Baseball Classic has something that's as close to relegation as Americans who don't watch foreign leagues with relegation will ever see. The first two World Baseball Classics did not have qualifying. There are 4 groups of 4. Then they decided that the top 3 in each group are invited back, and the bottom team in each group is relegated to a 4 team group that qualifies 1 team. Since the USA will probably never finish last in their group, many people who watch it don't know the consequences of finishing last. In September 2016, I saw a World Baseball Classic qualifier that was 1-0.

 

That is why having the tournament every 4 years instead of every summer would be the compromise.

 

I don't like that idea because of how much clubs change quality. The UEFA Champions League winner will probably reach the Quarterfinals in at least 4 of the 6 seasons of the 3 before and 3 after, but that's not true for all confederations. A Liga MX club could qualify for the Concacaf Champions League after not being in any of the previous three tournaments and still be favored against every or almost every club not from Liga MX. Toronto FC went from winning the Supporters' Shield and MLS Cup and losing in penalty kicks in the Champions League Final to being 19th of 23 in 2018. No matter how well an MLS club does one year, that club is more likely to be in the bottom quarter the next year than Barcelona or Real Madrid is to not be in the top quarter.

 

The point is not if people around here like the idea.

It is that Clubs may like the idea because it only happens every 4 years.

 

Manchester United won the 2007-2008 UEFA Champions League and 2008 Club World Cup. They haven't won a Champions League since. Cristiano Ronaldo left in 2009. If Club World Cups were played every four years in World Cup years with enough clubs to include four UEFA Champions League winners if they were different clubs, Manchester United wouldn't have won a hypothetical larger Club World Cup in 2010. The top clubs who could win leagues, domestic cups, and super cups in one season couldn't win as many trophies in a season without a Club World Cup.

 

You are not understanding my point.
No one is trying to argue against what you are saying.

There was a point of discussion earlier about the ICC and why Clubs like it every off season and would (conversely) hate having a World Cup like it every summer.

If it is every 4 years the Club teams may have more incentive to buy into it in the Summer. Even if what you are saying is factually true.
They don't care about that issue. They rather just focus on their European Competitions.

 

That's a fair point, I am just wondering whether clubs actually prefer every 4 years, and if so, why? I mean, we are talking about a tournament that only features champions of the Libertadores, UCL, Africa, CONCACAF, etc. Clubs aren't involved every year as it is [Okay, Madrid won 3 straight so there is a couple of exceptions, but that's very rare].

Generally speaking a club will only be champion once every 4 years max, so they either partake in a short CWC once every 4 years or in an expanded CWC once every 4 years.

 

I assume there would be multiple champions from each of the 3 seasons in between. Not just the team from 4 years back or whatever.

 

Yeah, it becomes a joke when talking about the representatives of CONMEBOL. Just looking at the finalists in the Libertadores over the past 4 tournaments, while most of them are "big" clubs that are still good pretty good right now, there are at least a couple that have fallen off the map a bit - Lanus (who finished 21st place last year and are 20th midway through this season) and Indep de Valle (a tiny club now in midtable in the Ecuadorian league).

 

32? lol ! Talk about creating a parallel process with the UCL.

 

How can it be parallel if it is played during the summer?

 

Cuz it'll look a lot like the UCL - at least in terms of composition of teams from the quarterfinals onwards. Although I should have written "trying to create a parallel process."