http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/06/06/report-copa-america-gold-cup-merge So, 2016 perhaps isn't so special after all.
Mentioned this idea elsewhere, and they could actually still keep modified and separate tournaments as well. Combining CONMEBOL and CONCACAF could happen (eventually) and make sense (and dollars). Year 1 - separate 12-team Gold Cup (North) and 12-team Copa (South) Year 2 - combined 16-team Copa de Americas Year 3 - Confederations Cup Year 4 - World Cup Cycle repeats...
They'll figure something out. Canada will have to try to qualify, and maybe the US and Mexico will have to try to qualify as well (rather than just being granted seeds). At some point, I could see all of Mexico/USA/Canada all co-hosting this tournament.
Qualification could still be separate. Confederations Cup berths could just be decided by best finisher from each region.
That seems too draw-dependent and wouldn't be balanced enough. I guess it would be "fair" in the sense that all teams would know that's how it's going down, but if, say, the U.S. gets an easier draw and easier QF matchup than Mexico, it really isn't a good indicator of who the best team in the region is.
Or, they could do Confederations Cup qualification based on the separate Gold Cups and Copa tournaments that could still be held in the summer one year prior to the "every 4 years" "COPA en EEUU." Or, this idea won't pan out, and things will go back to "normal" -- whatever that schedule was.
There has been suggestions in the past for Canada to join the Caribbean Cup to qualify for the Gold Cup. The reasoning being that getting automatic entry to the GC hurt Canada from a FIFA rankings POV as they weren't playing as many qualifiers that count more points wise for the rankings compared to the like of Jamaica or T&T. If this were merger of the tournaments something like that may work from a Canadian POV.
I do like this idea, but I wonder if it would put too many miles on the guys who are regular starters for the good teams. It would basically mean that the top players would never have a summer off.
That's not much different than now (or recently). Each 4-year cycle has regularly had 2 Gold Cups and from 1987-2001 there were 2 Copa America tournaments every 4 years. There have been 13 Copa tournaments in the past 30 years.
I like the idea. I just don't like it in the US. Spread it around a little. Also if it runs the same time as the Euros two years after/before the world cup then it works. Qualifying should be easy enough but I imagine that instead of 16 they will go with 24.
Yeah, i missed that part. Should definitely not be in the USA every time. And I don't see CONMEBOL going for that at all, unless they really just care about money and nothing else.
They do unfortunately. I definitely would like to spread it around too. It's not as bad as in CONCACAF where there's really only two or three viable hosts.
One would assume they could reasonably rotate hosts, and alternate every 4 years, North and South. Or maybe, everyone really is just cool with the idea of the USA always hosting (in spite of the heat). And honestly, if the US hosts every Combined Copa de Americas, there could still be opportunities for other nations to host the "preceding year" and separate Gold Cup (North) and Copa (South). But those may never happen, if both confederations are indeed fine with combining in some sense, or just agreeing to the (new/big/16-team) Copa to be played in the same years as the Euros.
Based on the espndeportes article, part of the rationale for doing this would be that the rich South American stars prefer our NFL-quality facilities, and their families like coming here on summer vacation. It also references economic stability -- federations know they are going to get paid when the event takes place here.
Certainly. Business decisions drive most things. And after a few cycles of "US-hosted Copas" it is very possible everyone will "miss playing Copas in South America" and this combined approach will farther evolve.
Actually it is pretty easy. All you have to do is liberate all the indicted corrupt officials from Conmebol, afterwards include in the deal all of the new ones who replaced them, grease them all up with some bucks and give them, a "tax-free", for life benefit, together with manssions somewhere in the caribbean, and US citizenship. If you do all that, they'll even sell their whole families to the best offer and will be happy doing so.
I think this is great as long as we keep the post-WC Gold Cup. I think we need that to be the mechanism for CONCACAF to determine qualification for the combined-COPA and Confederations Cup. I also enjoy the competitive element of the Gold Cup, although every two years is probably overkill.
Btw, don't complaint afterwards when a "new Conmebol" gets created with another name, and they decide to never do business nor invite you to anything together, ever again