Changing gears yet again... ...the CONMEBOL has mentioned that they are considering using some European refs for this Copa America. (I wonder if the Asian Federations recommended this idea.) Personally I think it would be a good idea since VAR is not really used much in South America. Might as well bring in guys who use it on a week-to -week basis. It may speed up the process.
In Coronavirus news... ...the Asian Qualifiers have been officially cancelled for the next two FIFA windows. I wonder if that could be a good thing for this Copa America tournament. Maybe Clubs will be more willing to release/allow players to play for Australia this Summer now that they won't be leaving during the season for Qualifiers. Although clubs still have the right to deny since it is not an AFC tournament some may be willing to let it slide. We shall see.
That's what you think...according to Peru's national teams manager, Conmebol could very well follow UEFA's lead.
Well, in a way it was only supposed to be aligned starting in 2024. The initial attempt to align came too late to re-schedule Brazil Copa'19 so they decided to push Ecuador to 2024. The idea of this Argentina-Colombia 2020 tournament only got approved about 12-18 months ago IIRC. Now it has little hope of taking place as scheduled.
As I said in the other thread it would suck for Colombia only having hosted once to be stripped of this tournament. Hopefully Colombia can host 2024 instead of Ecuador if it is cancelled. Or at the very least co-host.
But the more I think about it... .... maybe it will just be postponed to 2021. Qatar and their millions of dollars worth of tv ads and sponsors and television network dollars to CONMEBOL could be still too much to turn down. Plus Qatar the Federation really wants this tournament to go on for World Cup Preparation of their squad. They need all the competitive matches they can get Having it in 2021 could be even better for them in that regard really..
Well if 2020 is cancelled, I think Colombia deserve to host in 2028 (on their own). Don't see why Ecuador should get the shaft. It was confirmed that Ecuador would host before this 2020 tournament was invented out of thin air, so if the 2020 tournament doesn't happen I don't see why it would impact the 2024 tournament. Unless Ecuador volunteer to postpone their tournament.
IT will be interesting to see how it turns out since it may just be up to whichever Federation has more clout and influence within the Confederation. Or as I alluded to in the last post Colombia still gets to host in 2021.
Heck I can see them doing something like inserting a special February FIFA break and having the Euros and Copa all played in Qatar. (Just joking, or am I?)
I'd agree, but...they're planning the joint-2030 WC bid, so I doubt they're gonna backstab each other in the immediate future.
No one said anything about backstabs. Just if it comes down to Colombia or Ecuador the CONMEBOL will default to whichever has more political and financial clout which is probably Colombia. But as I said, more than likely we will just get a 2021 version of the tournament.
Postponing it a year will likely put our participation in doubt. As AFC world cup qualifiers have also been postponed we may be playing extra games at the time the Copa is rescheduled. I hope that's not the case as I really wanted our players to experience this but I fear it will be. Qatar should be OK as they wont be in the next round of AFC WCQ but may be affected if they mess up and need to play Asian Cup qualifiers.
We are running out of teams to invite then. Between Asian WCQ, Gold Cup, African Cup of Nations, Euro 2021 it is going to be slim pickens. We may need a CONCACAF U23 team like in previous tournaments come to the party.
I guess we will just have to wait and see how things pan out. We may still be able to make it, but there are a lot of extra games to play in 2021.
Suddenly the suggestion I made months ago to invite Lebanon and Syria doesn’t seem so ridiculous after all.
In the radical chance that this were to actually happen, I'd pay good money to see Shakira at Colombia vs. Lebanon
Syria is a good idea, but it raises the same issue as with Australia. In the best-case scenario, AFC will be 3 matchdays behind schedule when the 3rd round of qualifying begins. They can add an extra matchday in Oct 2021 and Nov 2021, but that still means having 2 matchdays in June 2021.
Had a look at the current FIFA calendar. If international matches resume in September there are enough current dates for AFC to complete qualification (including two rounds of playoffs) providing all dates get used. The mid 2021 window is from June 1-9 so with the COPA starting on June 11 it is pretty much the same as it would have been this year. Of course that depends on things resuming in September and The AFC being quick enough to get a draw done and the next round of matches organised between October 15 and November 11.
Uruguay's chances just went down a bit in my opinion.... ...they have to start from scratch on the managerial front due to the virus' economic impact: 400 Federation employees had to be let go including Tabarez:
Yup, forward line gets older which ain't good. Defense too. But I think their midfield gets stronger with an extra tree ring. Valverde is a baller. Also Bentancur (who will be 23) and Lucas Torreira (25) are still on the incline.