Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indies?

Re: Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indie

It may. Basically what you would get is one perennially strong side as opposed to a revolving door of various teams vying for world cup spots. One then has to ask how much stronger would this entity be compared with the current setup. It would defiantly stabilize the Caribbean region in terms of the strength of the team, but the current setup dictates that usually one or two teams from the region represent it well every cycle anyway. So to repeat myself. It may strengthen the perception of strength in the region but the actual strength I'm not sure.

 

Re: Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indie

There are many reasons for why it won't happen, but it's an interesting concept. Even if it were just the small federations -- Bahamas, Anguilla, Turks & Caicos, Barbados, Grenada, Dominica, Antigua & Barbuda, BVI, USVI, St. Lucia, St. Vincent.

There are some solid pros from those islands. Not a real competitive CONCACAF team by any means, but it could put up a fight. Furthermore, a lot of these islands try to lure guys in England with local heritage. Barbados was going after Marlon Harewood, but he viewed it as a waste of time. If this region banded together and got over the hump and became semi-competitive, I bet they'd be able to entice a lot more of the Harewoods of the world to play.

It'll never happen, but it would be good for CONCACAF because it would remove all the hopeless minnows and replace them with at worst, a semi-decent team.

Of course, we should probably ask what the small islands think, first.

 

Re: Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indie

Interestingly within West Indies Cricket there are regional teams as well (T&T ,Jamaica, Guyana etc) all play against each other in regional competitions from which the WI team is selected.
Now to follow from the point above, the smaller islands are represented regionally, not individually, but rather as 2 collective units; namely the Windward and Leeward island teams. These 2 sides are conglomerates of the smaller islands and might just be the compromise that would work in football as well.

 

Re: Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indie

One thing that should be noted is that the West Indies is not the "entire Caribbean", it's only the English speaking islands. So they still wouldn't benefit from the good players on Cuba, Haiti, Guadeloupe, Martinique, etc.

It is based on a mixture of quality and quantity.

Based on quality only, South America would get about 7 bids, but based on quantity they'd only get like 2, so 4.5 is the middle ground. CONCACAF would only get 1.5 based on quality but based on quantity we would get like 6, so we get 3.5 to equal it out.

 

Re: Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indie

I don't think a Windies national team would help CONCACAF, and I think it would hurt the development of the national leagues and players.

I do think the region might benefit from an expansion of the Caribbean Club Championship into something more like a Caribbean "premier league", where teams could be "promoted" out of their national league and into a regional league. The logistics could be tricky, though.

 

Re: Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indie

He is, but from what I understand Ireland is not part of the UK, but part of Great Britain.

 

Re: Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indie

I don't think they could afford it. T&T is much closer to South America than the North American continent. The cost of travel could be a nightmare. Besides T&T has benefited as much from their domestic league as the US has benefited from MLS. I don't see why they would want to change anything.

 

Re: Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indie

In the early 90's there was a Caribbean League. The teams from T&T dominated it and very quickly the teams from the smaller Islands began folding. After the league folded T&T formed its own league in 1999. The PFL has players from many CFU countries and even a few South American players.

 

Re: Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indie

In their CFU Club Championship game the other night West Connection (or whatever it's called) only had 4 Trinidadians in their starting line-up. You'd almost think they're Arsenal.

 

Re: Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indie

WConnection's is one of the richer clubs in T&T. I don't like them that much for that very reason. Jabloteh is also rich but they invest more on T&T players .
I think that the league should have a cap on oversea players. Defence Force the last CFU team to win the Concacaf cup is no longer the powerhouse team that they used to be mainly because of these two teams plus Jackula's Joe Public.

 

Re: Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indie

Though an interesting idea, I'm against it. I think we should focus on developing the soccer infrastructure, personnel, and domestic league in the area.

I wonder how Jack's sticky fingers hold Caribbean development back?

Still, T&T and Jamaica are doing OK. And some other teams have a nice footballing tradition and seem to be improving (Suriname, Grenada, Guyana). And Haiti and Cuba are always around.

 

Re: Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indie

1. Any West Indies team (I'm assuming we're referring to the English-speaking West Indies like in cricket) without Jamaica and T&T involved would still be a complete no-hoper when it comes to WCQ and makes no difference to the overall strength of CONCACAF. Which brings me to point 2.

2. Why do Jamaica and T&T even need to join a larger collective? They've each qualified for a World Cup final in the last 10 years, which is better than most Central American sides and Canada have done. They seem to be doing just fine on their own.

 

Re: Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indie

Thank you

 

Re: Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indie

agree !

 

Re: Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indie

I think we must be serious! In cricket, the team of West Indies was a colonial naming! At this time all these countries were not independent. Now we have sovereign nations in the Caribbean and you want a football team of West-Indies? No, i disagree!

 

Re: Would CONCACAF be better off if the Caribbean nations became one association like the West Indie

No, my answer is NO! Why must people always decided for others? I don't think that caribbean countries would accept such a decision. As caribbean i object!
If we beat the United States or Mexico to become the number one in CONCACAF, we prefer either Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guadeloupe or any caribbean country but not a team of West Indies! The colonial era is over!

 

After almost qualifying for World Cup 1990, Russell Latapy and somebody else (Dwight Yorke?) of Trinidad and Tobago qualified for World Cup 2006. They couldn't have had the same pride if they played in World Cup 2006 but as part of a Caribbean team with Jamaicans, Haitians, etc. For the Cricket World Cup I'm assuming much fewer countries attempt to qualify than for the FIFA World Cup.

 

I think the only way this would be at all feasible from a team assemblage/political standpoint would be a consolidation of NTs along geographic lines, but not a complete merger. T&T and Jamaica remain separate. Same with the larger Spanish speaking countries and Haiti. Bermuda and the Caymans would remained "orphaned" due to geography. Lucaya = Bahamas and T&C. English speaking Lesser Antilles as one. Another for the French and Dutch. That would leave 23 FAs (including non FIFA members). It wouldn't do a lot in terms if producing contenders for WC spots, although I do thing an English speaking Antilles would be a nice Gold Cup squad and possibly a hex contender the way a Haiti is.

 

It's a bit of both, otherwise CONMEBOL would have all ten of their members qualifying.