just throwin' it out there: I think FIFA should try and get its confederations all on the same page for their confederation championships. *summer and winter based on Northern hemishpere* Summer year A: World Cup Fall year A: Confederation championship qualifying (if necessary)/international friendlies Winter/Spring B: Confederation championship qualifying (if necessary)/international friendlies Summer B: FIFA Club World Cup Fall B: Confederation championship qualifying (if necessary)/international friendlies Winter C: Confederation Championship slot Spring C: World Cup Qualifying (if necessary)/ international friendlies Summer C: Confederation Championship slot Fall C: World Cup Qualifying Winter D: FIFA Club World Cup Spring D: World Cup Qualifying Summer D: Confederations Cup Fall D: World Cup Qualifying Spring A: international friendlies I would change the club world cup format to every other year, but I would invite the last two UEFA CL and Libertadores finalists, CCL, CAF CL, AFC CL, the host nations most recent domestic league winner, and a playoff winner between the last two OFC CL winners. Then you have 4 groups of 4 teams with no teams from the same confederation in the same group. Top 2 in each group reach 1/4 finals. Because the competiton rotates between summer B and Winter D, the competition can always be held in the summer time of the host country and therefore can rotate between northern and southern hemisphere locations
I don't know who makes the MLS schedule but why are the games happening during the World Cup? This makes no sense! At the last world cup so many US stars were missing from the league its like whats the point of watching the MLS if the best players in the World are all playing at the World Cup? So pointless just put the games off or change the schedule this is ridiculous
one of the big complaints about the club world cup is its intrusion on schedules. You can't just expect clubs to take 4 weeks out of their schedules to accomodate a full-blown 16 team tournament.
Euro '08 was three weeks and that was a 16 team tournament. I think the way to deal would be to have a mandatory FIFA Winter break for at least 2 weeks (countries like Germany take these anyway), and then have the clubs that went away make up the one week that they missed later in the season in the same way that they do now for the Club world cup which is held EVERY YEAR. Or you could have a 1 week FIFA mandated winter break and then have the clubs in the CWC make up 2 games over the season.
You don't maybe think making every league take a mandatory break to squeeze in a tournament that probably none of their teams will be playing in is the tail wagging the dog? And to prepare for a 3 week tournament on the other side of the world, you'll need more than the 3 weeks the tournament is scheduled for.
Spain, Germany, and Italy all have a break in the winter. Its possible that FIFA, or leagues on their own should look into having a break anyway. Further, I guess FIFA could only extend the mandatory break to domestic leagues with teams in the tournament. Tail wagging the dog? I think this set up would truley give the tournament the respect it deserves in crowning the best club team in the world. Other than the World Cup, I don't see a bigger purpose. Need more than the 3 weeks? I duno, how about half of a season to prepare for it? These are club teams that practice together year round, I don't see what you need to prepare for. To recover from the jet lag? That should take a day or two, and only half the field plays in the first two days. It is a sligtly bigger pain in the arse once every 4 years, instead of a small pain every season.
Why should a league of 20 teams shut down because 1 team has a tournament to attend? The other 19 would never accept it.
If I was in charge, I'd do this: Summer A: FIFA World Cup (32 team) Winter A: African Cup of Nations (16 team) Summer B: Copa America (16 team) Winter B: AFC Asian Cup (16 team) Summer C: UEFA European 'Euro' Championships (24 team) Winter C: African Cup of Nations (16 team) Summer D: FIFA Club World Cup (32 team) Winter D: Empty - no winter break * In Winters A, B and C the club football season must adhere to a 4 week winter break from the 2nd week of January until the 2nd week of February to allow for the Asian and African Cups. * Winter D left empty to allow club seasons the option of playing through the break, with the condition of the 4 week gap prior to the World Cup. * A full blown Club World Cup will be held in a neutral country just like the normal World Cup. Qualification by Confederation wins and best averages during the previous 4 years. * FIFA Confederations Cup dropped. * Copa America now acts as championship of the whole of the Americas, with all CONMEBOL countries qualifying automatically, and best 6 from CONCACAF. CONCACAF Gold Cup dropped with Copa America hosting rotating with CONMEBOL hosting twice than CONCACAF once. * UEFA qualifying for World Cup and Euro scaled back, with Wednesday-Saturday-Wednesday breaks within club season to reduce overall disruption to club season.
why did you decide to keep having the African Cup of Nations every other year? I think one way to reduce the games in UEFA qualifying would be to have the really small nations start the qualifying early with 2 legged playoffs in order to reduce the number of teams in the group by 1 or 2 countries, which would make 2 or 4 less group games. If your droping the confederations cup, then I would suggest making the club world cup smaller and having the world cup hosts, host that tournament. Its important to make sure that all the possibly unforseen kinks are worked out before the biggest tournament in the world takes place. And leg_breaker, like I said a lot of countries already take winter breaks, but in England, they could just take one of the weeks off, and then have League/FA Cup matches the next weekend. Leaving the team(s) that went away with only one league match and one cup match to make up when they returned. I would think the three teams that would have to play an extra midweek game because their scheduled opponents were away wouldn't mind having the whole league suspend for a week instead.
This is just plain dumb. The Gold Cup is a tournament that is absolutely necessary for the Carribbean Island to get regularly competitive matches. They have a qualifying tournament for it, and then the winners get to get on a cheap flight to the US and play some of the continents best sides. It's crucial to the development on those nations soccer programs. And it makes NO sense to have the African Cup of Nations TWICE, and not have a Gold Cup or a Confederations Cup. I'd rather they drop the Club World Cup that is boring anyway.
I think it's rather rich calling me dumb and then questioning why I've put down the African Cup of Nations as being held biannually. If you checked the facts, you'd realise that the African Cup of Nations has always been held biannually - Any European will know this as our clubs keep losing players for two/three weeks every other January! It's the oldest confederal tournament still running, so it's surely up to the European clubs to accomodate the ACN into the calender, not other around as Blatter has said. Several points: * When I meant scaling back qualifying in UEFA, I meant by spreading out the teams into groups of 5 teams instead of the current 6. The sheer number of games is ridiculous and unneeded. However, the minnows must remain within the group system, no pre-eliminators. Having the minnows in the qualifying proper is the only way of giving them competitive games and they're hardly a major pain for the big teams... and if a big team does struggle, it's more a problem for the big team than the minnow! * The Confederations Cup serves no real purpose other than to fill FIFA's pockets, the WC hosts stadiums can be tested with domestic and continental club games. * A proper Club World Cup would feature all the big European clubs, the pick from South America and the rest of the world. It's a no brainer, it would be a real club version of the normal World Cup. * Fair enough about the Gold Cup, but it's not as if the Gold Cup couldn't remain with the US entering a team made of players only from MLS and B-teams from Mexico, Costa Rica and Canada. The big teams in CONCACAF really should be against CONMEBOL on a regular basis and in the same qualifying section for the World Cup.
24 teams? Out of the question, you'd just end up with a dreary qualifying competition and a group stage that is just a long drawn-out way of eliminating the 8 superfluous teams. I'm glad you're not in charge.
I must say...that my concern is more toward the Confed cup being a success in SA, than the World Cup... I believe we will be ready...just worried about ticket sales...who would rather wanna come to the confed cup than the world cup? I hope South Africa does well in the confed cup(as well as world cup). Cause that will increase the ticket demands here and fill the stadiums easier because of interest...
We can have the Club World Cup with a 16-team format if we drop the ridiculous Confederations Cup which serves no footballistically purpose. AND...bring the World Cup back to 24 teams with Spain 82's format.