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

if you have champions league champion every year you need a club world cup every year.

 

What a joke....there aren't enough well-financed (or good) clubs throughout the rest of the world to challenge the UEFA giants.....the knockout rounds would just end up being a mini-UEFA Champions League.

 

I have a better idea. Just can both of them. There is too much going on anyways. I do think that all of the confederation championships should be the same year (two years on either side of the world cup). The truth is that the sport is too bloated as is. No one cares about the CWC. Some people find the Confed Cup interesting (I'll admit I do), but it is unnecessary. Same thing with countries: they need to get rid of secondary (league) cups. And get rid of the Nations League as well.

 

Indeed. It's the Copa América and Gold Cup in June-July, Asian Cup and Africa Cup of Nations in January

If Barcelona and Flamengo qualify, why would Real Madrid or Vasco da Gama fans watch it?

Unless they put four English teams, three Spanish teams and three Italian teams, just to exclude the smaller markets.

 

I think the most popular clubs would rather play friendlies or International Champions Cup games they decide on rather than a Club World Cup in the summer. If it had 32 teams and had the same format as a World Cup, it would take 31 days. In addition to conflicting with national team tournaments, it would conflict with Champions League and Europa League Qualifying Rounds. Most of the top clubs don't play in qualifying rounds or start in Qualifying Round 3 (which started on July 26 this year) or later, but there are exceptions. APOEL Nicosia started the 2011-2012 Champions League on July 13 and reached the Quarterfinals. Even if it was possible, I don't want there to be a 32 (or even 16) Club World Cup at the same time as Champions League and Europa League Qualifying Rounds. I also think the players should get a little break. Do you think Cristiano Ronaldo would want to have a five round (up to seven games per team) tournament in three out of every four years? The three tournaments would be the World Cup, Euro, and hypothetical 32 club Club World Cup. In addition to any issues with fairness or the equality of clubs changing, if multiple Champions Leagues qualified clubs for the same Club World Cup, it would be complicated to determine who qualifies. Let's give UEFA 13 spots in a hypothetical Club World Cup like they get for the World Cup. UEFA would deserve more than 13 clubs, but my point works for UEFA having 13 clubs, 20 clubs, or anywhere in between. The last four UEFA Champions League Semifinals had 8 different clubs. The amount of clubs who reach multiple Semifinals varies, but I think it's safe to say that four consecutive UEFA Champions League Semifinals won't have more than 13 different clubs. Next, I'll try to choose UEFA Champions League Quarterfinal losers who didn't reach any of those Semifinals. That provides Paris Saint-Germain, who has lost in the last four Quarterfinals, and four clubs whose best finish in the last four Champions Leagues was one Quarterfinal loss. Those clubs are Malaga, Galatasaray, Manchester United, Porto, AS Monaco, Wolfsburg, and Benfica. How do you choose which of them would qualify for a Club World Cup held every four years?

 

I am 100% agreed wit a 32 team CWC, but not in June, when every 2 years there are the World Cup or the Europe Cup.

 

I would rather see the CWC scrapped than the Confederations Cup. Both are kinda useless but at least in the Confed Cup there are more than 2 teams that can win it. Plus its only once every 4 years.

 

If you added more teams from Europe and South America you would have more than two teams that could win it.

 

Yeah, you would have about 4. But they would be the same 4 teams that played in the CL semis so kind of redundant, and thus, pointless.

 

Scrap the Confed Cup, play 8-team CWC in late July/early August (during preseason).

Players aren't robots (OK, Ronaldo is), they can't play on constant basis, they need free summer here and there, ffs.

Gianni looks like real-life Football Manager Editor player.

 

Even if only 2 clubs can win the CWC, it still gives clubs a chance to battle for third and lower positions. I think TP Mazembe is happy there were CWCs, and Deportivo Saprissa (from a low-population country) was the last CONCACAF club to finish in the Top 3.

 

Average attendance for matches not involving the UEFA team in the CWC last year was about 20,000 per game.

For the 2013 Confed Cup, even if we exclude Brasil matches, the average attendance was about 50,000 per match.

Would be interesting to know what the TV ratings are but I wouldn't be surprised if the disparity was even greater than stadium attendance.

 

Not sure how interesting it would be. Confederations Cup has almost always kicked off during prime time hours in Western/Central Europe. CWC before noon.
For me in the Pacific Time Zone Confed Cup is usually around 9am-12noon. CWC between 11pm-2am. Despite the hours I'd still rather watch CWC (in its present format) than Confed Cup but I know and accept that I'm in the minority.

 

Any idea where the 2021 Confederations Cup will take place? In Qatar it will be too hot in summer and AFAIK nobody from AFC has offered to host it (instead of Qatar) ... potentially the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup, would be held in Qatar in November/December 2021, as the test event for the 2022 World Cup ... no word on what happens to the 2021 Confederations Cup though. - http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/fifa-strips-qatar-of-confederations-cup-1.2973534

Also, the 2021 UEFA Nations League top tier group winners will probably play Final Four in June 2021 ... from 2018 onwards every summer will be a summer of football for UEFA teams ... we'll be left with a terribly congested calendar if a 32 team FIFA Club World Cup and the Confederations Cup take place in June/July as well.

After a diluted EURO2016, the worst tournament I've seen, I'm looking forward to the inaugural edition of the Nations League to make up for it ... looks like UEFA aims to make the Nations League a major tournament ... it's going to be cut-throat ... Europe's top sides facing each other straightaway in qualifiers ... e.g. a GoD of Germany, Spain and Croatia ... tough yet mouth-watering Qs ... even the top sides can't hide from a relegation battle ... and all that before the Final 4 kicks off. The Confederations Cup and Club World Cup, on the contrary, struggle to attract interest in Europe ... winning those tournaments hardly has any prestige at all over here (feels more like a corporate gig than something to keep supporters at the tip of their seats) ... even though the Nations League will be brand new, this tournament could very well draw more attention and winning UNL silverware could quickly carry plenty of prestige.

 

I'm one of those people lol.

It's fun to watch =D. The Brazil 2013 Final was great as well as the Italy Spain Semifinal. That was one the SEXIEST set of PK's I ever saw. And USA almost won that 2009 one. Wasn't the 1997 one the one where we got the Roberto Carlos Banana kick? Lots of good moments.

 

sad can't find a HD version of the PK shootout between Italy and Spain

 

It seems congested at first glance but remember that they're likely to be all different teams. Instead of 1-2 UEFA team playing in the Confed Cup in June 2021 you'll have 5-6 NT's involved in int'l competition that month (still a small minority). But the Nations League is only 2 matches I believe (?) And its during a regular FIFA int'l break which already exists so technically speaking they're not playing any extra matches.

but yeah.. a 32-team CWC would increase the level of congestion notably. That's why its not a very feasible idea.

 

I will suggest that the format should not group play, but single-elimination the whole way; play consolation matches, so all 32 teams play in each of the five rounds; if you don't want the #25-#32 consolation matches to played, say that teams that lose their first three matches are eliminated.

Europe (8, seeded 1 to 8), South America (8. seeded 1-8), North America (6), Asia (6), Africa (2), Oceania (2); rest-of-world is seeded 1-16

In the first round, seeds EUR-1 and SA-1 play ROW-15 and ROW-16; so forth down the line, so ROW-1 and ROW-2 play EUR-8 and SA-8.

Second round is bracketed so that if only EUR and SA teams advance, EUR-1 plays SA-8 and so forth. Rest of rounds are bracketed similarly.

 

One of Infantino's kooky ideas will stick eventually ... and yes, hopefully it won't be that 32-team CWC in June/July. Now IF the Nations League had started already (those cut-throat Qs just having finished this month) ... in 2017 both Germany and Portugal would have had a fair chance of advancing to the Final 4 or together with the other UEFA teams they would be playing double matchday Qs ("Week of Football" overhaul) ... in any case there'll be more competitive matches year round and regardless of which teams go to the Confederations Cup all those matches will further cut into the player's rest ... Germany not only acknowledged that players need more rest but they also put their words into action and gave them more rest while clubs often have done the same ... and that's the sentiment already before adding more competitive matches (for all UEFA teams from 2018 onwards).*

The Nations League could very well expand rapidly ... especially the real danger of top sides being relegated or failing to advance to the final event, e.g. a huge media market like Germany dropping down/being a no-show, could mean we won't have to wait that long to see the return of a 16 team tournament in Europe ... doubting the diluted 24 team Euros will go back to the 16 team formula that worked beautifully (another expansion is more likely as that horrible 24 team format is unbalanced and more teams means more profit) ... so the next step could be a Nations League with a top tier of 4 groups of 4 teams ... after 3 double matchdays the group leader & runner-up advance ... a straight KO final event with QFs, SFs and Final ... that's already elegant as fvck and you can still expand to a final event with 16 teams.

*some teams prefer to play fewer friendlies or even struggle to find an opponent ... that sort of thing can also help "game" the FIFA rankings, e.g. Wales and Romania had top seed status in the Russia2018 Qs draw while Italy shot themselves in the foot playing useless friendlies ... also, taking a breather in friendlies is hardly the same as having to get results in competitive matches year round. When you like the Confederations Cup to be viewed as something bigger than a simple dress rehearsal/corporate gig/gala event, then those matches would also have to be highly competitive.