Expanded FIFA Club World Cup: Tournament News & General Discussion [R]

They'll never do it (cuz rea$ons) but coming from someone who doesn't really watch club football outside of the Prem and CL, the old Intercontinental Cup sounds way more compelling than whatever the Club World Cup is. Specifically the original home-and-away format. Instead of this bloated mess of a glorified repeat CL (with some teams that won the CL three whole years ago), they should just resurrect the Intercontinental Cup imo.

IMO they should have a qualifying tournament on neutral ground during the current December CWC timeslot with the five non-UEFA CL winners. You could get it done in three matchdays like this:

- Everyone except CONMEBOL plays the first two rounds before the qualifying final.

Two rounds of one-legged ties to get the 4 CL winners down to 1.

- One leg between Libertadores winner and qualifying second round winner to decide who goes to the Intercontinental Cup.

Then you could have the winner play the UCL winner home-and-away. You'd have to schedule league play for the involved teams around the fixtures, but you have to do that now with the CWC anyway. I'm sure there is room for two fixtures and requisite travel somewhere in the calendar.

 

Thumbs down, IMO. Current format is fine (current, not the expanded version that is coming next year). Just need better variety of hosts. Middle East and Japan once awhile OK, but needs to go somewhere with atmosphere too - like places in Africa, South America, or Europe that have a population and passion for soccer but don't have top 5 league. Mexico City for example.

And cheaper tickets, so good crowds can get in there. Actually Japan has been pretty good, but has had plenty of turns already.

 

I don't know. The current format frankly feels a little gimmicky almost, between the presence of a random host team alongside six CL winners and the weird placement games. I get why - UEFA doesn't care about it enough for FIFA to host an annual CWC with a proper group stage. I actually think the newly proposed format is in some ways superior, I just don't think the (lack of) prestige of the CWC justifies such a bloating of the tournament.

At the very least scrap the host spot imo.

 

What if you just did 6 winners play it out. If you wanted to expand it, go to 8 and have Europa League and Copa SudAmericana winner as teams 7 and 8. Rotate the tournament from confederation to confederation.

 

Club World Cup is happening, super league is not.

 

Yeah, the money grabbing attempts by FIFA just embarrassing at this point. Club WC doesn't work when all the top clubs are from one region. (D'uh!) And that gap keeps widening. The idea might've had some appeal 30+ years ago but the landscape has changed since then.

Imagine a Copa America of basketball with teams from Mexico, the NBA and South America. You have the mismatches when NBA plays teams from other countries (yawn). OTOH you have matches involving the NBA champs against an NBA team that was good 3 years ago but who kinda suck now (e.g. Lakers v Golden State). Yawn x2 Just silly and what's the added value (apart from a handful of people raking-in more money)?

 

One option would be a six team tournament with 2 groups of 3, winners play in the final, runners up the third place, and bottom place teams playoff for 5th. That way everyone gets 3 games, there are no teams coming just to play one game (seriously OCEANIA must feel like a pluto-confederation), and the big guns only have to stay for 1 extra game. You could redraw the groups the next year based on how the confederations performed at the previous years competition... ie Group A: last years 1st, 4th, 5th teams and group B last years teams number 2,3,6. So this year you'd have group A: Bayern, Ulsan Huyndai, Al Ahli group B: Santos/Palimeiras, Monterrey, Aukland.... just get rid of the host nation or maybe host the nation could be one of the confederation winners rotated every year. But anyway, it looks like FIFA are going in a very, very different direction here. I hope for the best but am worried it's just going to turn into another Euro-dominated tournament.

 

That's true, probably best if the tournament was in the Americas then otherwise Europe will dominate. They may anyway.

 

Welcome to Qatar then Palmeiras.... they should feel right at home at Qatar's Education City Stadium.. their Allianz Parque is very similar from inside

Allanz Parque:


Education City Stadium:

 

Have been waiting for Palmeiras at the top for years. So happy with their triumph last night, so happy to have them at the CWC.

 

Oops... sorry wrong thread

Was looking all over the 2020 CWC thread and wondering why my post was deleted

Both these threads look pretty similar on my feed with Nico's avatar as the thumbnail though...

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

24 teams is just so stupid in my opinion

 

I have a couple questions about this.

1) Will the competition take place once every four years and eliminate the yearly FCWC?

2) Will qualification be based on results in continental competitions in just the year concerning the competition or in all four years leading up to it?

3) Will the European sides boycott?

4) What is the likelihood it will be expanded to 32 teams with a format identical to the current World Cup?

5) Will the confederations not named UEFA move their continental club championships to a fall to spring schedule to line up for the event?

6) How will this affect the African Cup of Nations, the Gold Cup, and Arab Cup which are usually played in odd years?

7) Will this take place at all?

 

One thing I haven't seen mentioned in the whole biennial World Cup debate is where the Club World Cup (expanded or otherwise) would sit. Have FIFA thrown in the towel on this (seeking gains elsewhere) or is it hiding in some corner of the proposal?

Wenger is suggesting alternating World and Confederation tournaments; a Summer competition therefore appears out of the window and I doubt clubs would be accepting of a Winter competition with the expanded international breaks.

Thoughts?

 

lolol

 

What happens if both(unexpectedly) fall through? Infantino leaves?