Here is the important text from that link: CONCACAF announced that the Champions Cup as been re-formatted to an eight-team tournament for 2004. The CONCACAF Champions Cup will continue to be a straight knockout event, as it has been in the last two years, with teams playing over a home-and-away system that begins on 17 March 2004. The 2004 breakdown will feature two clubs each from Mexico and the USA, one team will qualify from the Caribbean Football Union and three clubs will advance from Union Centroamericana de Fútbol (UNCAF) Championship later this year.
8 teams. Either they lost a lot of money with it last year and didnt want to lose anymore or they just don't believe in it very much (i.e., Mexico doesn't believe in it very much) so they reduced it in size and scope. Kinda sad.
According to the CONCACAF guy in this article: http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2003/septiembre/17/deportes5.html They cut the tournament down because of the crowded calendar next year with World Cup and Olympic qualifying...maybe it will be re-expanded to 16 teams in future years.
The Supporters Shield Winner vs The US Open Cup Winner for the Super Cup and the right to appear in the CONCAJOKE champions league. You know, can't we do a coup on CONCAJOKE. Don Garber and St Phil don't appear to tolerate idiots. Why don't they storm in there and toss the idiot bastards out. MLS could use some meaningful and exposed intl club tournaments. And the Supporters Shield looks less like a shield and more of a dull two-pronged fork. Like a shrimp fork or something. But hey - I like it. Shrimp that is.
Mexico has been trying to for years and even they have been unsuccessful. Bottom line is every confederation gets a vote, and there are lots of Carribbean islands who blindly follow Herr Warner.
It just seems weird to me that the two biggest dogs on the block -- Mexico and the US -- can't instrument a change. My understanding is that Mexico dislikes Warner as much as we do. We have the two best/richest leagues, and the two best national teams. There's no way to leverage that?
Yes, the SS in its current form was largely due to organizational and plain stick-to-it-iveness of Sam Pierron of Lawrence, KS. If I recall the history correctly, the original idea was from a Tampa (or Miami?) supporter, but nobody could agree on what to call it, and he got frustrated and bailed out. Sam revived the project and most of the planning and fund raising was done on the North American Soccer list, a listserv-based discussion group that has been around for many years. Many of us on NAS donated money toward the project, as did many others. So yeah, if you don't like the design, do what we did, put your money where your mouth is
Mexico ran CONCACAF for 30 years until we helped engineer the coup that put Warner in charge in 1990. As far as I can tell they didn't do much for the development of soccer in the region, and had the brilliant idea of holding the final round of WCQ all in one country from 1974-1982. Not sure what their interest would be in taking charge of the confed now, although they must have had something in mind by putting Codesal up as a candidate in the last election. My guess is that they would like to reduce their obligations to the confed. There seems to have been a recent reconciliation between the CONCACAF leadership and the FMF, with the Gold Cup games being moved to the Azteca, and the olympic qualifying tournament awarded to Mexico. Doubt they're upset about the Champions Cup being reduced to eight teams. I don't think the USSF has much of a problem with Warner. As for the Champions Cup, hopefully it will return to 16 teams in the future. There are always going to be problems with scheduling and lack of interest from some of the clubs due to the unprofitable nature of the competition.
The trophy is ugly, but what it stands for is quite beautiful. That's what the supporters shield means, at least to me. A champion born of 6 months of ups and downs, not 4 games. But that's just me. I don't think that they should get rid of MLS Cup, as I feel it has a place, just up the importance of the Supporters Shield. I guess I just interest myself in the things that no one cares about because I'm also really disturbed by this CONCACAF Champions Cup fiasco. They need to expand the tournament, not reduce it. I thought last year's tournament was just right with the qualifing stages and the round of 16, even if it was all Mexico teams at the end. I know the reality of the situation. The tournament needs sponsors and TV time for it ever to get anywhere, but I at least think the confederation should support it if no one else does.
How about this idea where in addition to the supporter's shield which passes from one team to the next each year, the winner also receive a supporter's flag permanently. The winning team can donate this flag to its supporters. It should be colorful, creative with the year and the team name somewhere in the middle of the flag. It wouldn't cost much, I am guessing around 100-150 dollars per year per flag. How about it guys? I am wiling to donate $15 dollars. 50 years from now, there will be 50 (or 57) differnent supporter's flag waving at the MLS CUP. I will search the web to find some kind of flag resemblance of this. What do you guys think?
this site got some great football supporters flags http://www.astroflag.co.uk/custom.html#Gallery and on sale too (or you can make a new one and order) or how about a flag that look similar to this one http://www.readysoft.es/flags/German.htm (third flag down titled : BADEN GREAT DUKE) instead of yellow and red, we can use red, white and blue. the crown signifies champion. how about this one (get rid of the red color though) or something similar to that with a soccer ball in the middle instead of the black circle.
or this with the dragon looking at a soccer ball instead of a red circle. or instead of a dragon, a lion, or whatever. Maybe we alternate between the years. Even year: a rectangular flag Odd year: a triangle flag or a rectangular flag with the right side cut in a criss-cross motion.
I'm not so sure about the designs you suggested, but I love the idea of giving the teams flags. I think the designs should be something simple. Maybe just a bi or tri (team)colored flag with the words Supporters Shield and the year. They can fly them above their Stadia.
I'll pay $500 to upgrade the trophy. I think you can get a decent shield / trophy for that - right? Whose ever in charge just PM and we'll talk. I'll get it made, buy it and ship it wherever. Seriously.
Actually, having the shield taken care of (cleaned and shined) would be a better investment. It really is a beautiful thing when taken care of.
Are you telling me it's stuck in a basement somewhere collecting cobwebs? Someone get out the spit and polish!! btw, you da man, Northside!!
Um, not exactly, but the Fusion people didn't exactly treat it with the proper respect while it was in their custody. May have had something to do with their team being folded.
Maybe just getting it cleaned and polished is the way to go - I just figure IF a new trophy was in order, one person could get it done in time for the end of this season faster than holding a bigsoccer raffle at $5 a pop. Plus I could have my name engraved on the underneath of the trophy and have my name go down in MLS History rather than just in the weekend police beat.