The CONCACAF League of Nations is an announced international football (soccer) competition. The tournament would take place on dates that are currently allocated for international friendlies on the FIFA International Match Calendar. It is expected to begin in September 2018.
The tournament was announced in November 2017.
There will be divided three different leagues with a champion to be crowned at the end of each edition. The tournament will also determine which national teams qualify for the CONCACAF Gold Cup and will feature promotion and relegation between the leagues.
The format of the proposed competition has not yet been published, the proposals were first formally investigated at the XXXII CONCACAF Ordinary Congress in Oranjestad, Aruba on 8 April 2017. CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani stated that the purpose of the competition was to have a regular schedule of international fixtures for CONCACAF's national teams noting that some teams play fewer than 10 games in a four year period and needed more competitive games to assist the sport's development in those nations
AN EXAMPLE (NOT OFFICIAL) OF HOW THIS COULD LOOK
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The League of Nations would divide CONCACAF's 41 member associations into three levels.
Level One would have two groups of six teams. Each group would play a 10-game round-robin, just like the current Hex. At the end of the round-robin, the top two nations in each group would advance to a single-game Final Four tournament, held in the same city over the course of a single week (Thurs./Sun). The bottom club in each group would be relegated to Level Two in the following League of Nations tournament.
Level Two would be identical to Level One, except the top two nations in each group would enter in a playoff with a nation from the opposite group. The winners would be promoted into Level One of the next cycle's League of Nations. The bottom club in each group would be relegated to Level Three in the following League of Nations tournament.
Level Three would have three groups of six, six, and five nations, playing a round-robin. The top two nations in each group would advance to a a promotion playoff (with a bye given to the two group winners with the highest points-per-game average). The winners of that playoff would be promoted into Level Two of the next cycle's League of Nations.
No national team would play more than 12 games in a League of Nations cycle. No national team would play fewer than 8 games.
I completely understand why this would benefit most of the CONCACAF nations.
With that said, it does absolutely zilch for the USA. Same thing for Mexico and probably a few others at that. Actually, it's even worse than that. It's going to knock quality competition off the schedule in exchange for random Caribbean islands. Especially considering where US soccer is right now...in a pit...it behooves the USSF to explore options of getting out of CONCACAF.
Our national team needs quality competition to reach the next echelon. The only way we're going to do that is abandon ship and either go to South America or Europe. Maybe we could take a few with us...like Mexico.
I don't know if the other Federations would be welcoming, but at this point we might as well give it a shot.
(11-22-2017 04:47 PM)AllTideUp Wrote: [ -> ]I completely understand why this would benefit most of the CONCACAF nations.
With that said, it does absolutely zilch for the USA. Same thing for Mexico and probably a few others at that. Actually, it's even worse than that. It's going to knock quality competition off the schedule in exchange for random Caribbean islands. Especially considering where US soccer is right now...in a pit...it behooves the USSF to explore options of getting out of CONCACAF.
Our national team needs quality competition to reach the next echelon. The only way we're going to do that is abandon ship and either go to South America or Europe. Maybe we could take a few with us...like Mexico.
I don't know if the other Federations would be welcoming, but at this point we might as well give it a shot.
actually the islands are considering leaving to form their own federation which would leave 10 teams in CONCACAF and 10 teams in COMNEBOL.
I don't think either will happen tho
(11-22-2017 04:47 PM)AllTideUp Wrote: [ -> ]I completely understand why this would benefit most of the CONCACAF nations.
With that said, it does absolutely zilch for the USA. Same thing for Mexico and probably a few others at that. Actually, it's even worse than that. It's going to knock quality competition off the schedule in exchange for random Caribbean islands. Especially considering where US soccer is right now...in a pit...it behooves the USSF to explore options of getting out of CONCACAF.
Our national team needs quality competition to reach the next echelon. The only way we're going to do that is abandon ship and either go to South America or Europe. Maybe we could take a few with us...like Mexico.
I don't know if the other Federations would be welcoming, but at this point we might as well give it a shot.
these replaces the random International Friendlies
gives the national teams similar opponents to practice against
(01-24-2018 11:10 AM)EPJr2 Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2017 04:47 PM)AllTideUp Wrote: [ -> ]I completely understand why this would benefit most of the CONCACAF nations.
With that said, it does absolutely zilch for the USA. Same thing for Mexico and probably a few others at that. Actually, it's even worse than that. It's going to knock quality competition off the schedule in exchange for random Caribbean islands. Especially considering where US soccer is right now...in a pit...it behooves the USSF to explore options of getting out of CONCACAF.
Our national team needs quality competition to reach the next echelon. The only way we're going to do that is abandon ship and either go to South America or Europe. Maybe we could take a few with us...like Mexico.
I don't know if the other Federations would be welcoming, but at this point we might as well give it a shot.
these replaces the random International Friendlies
gives the national teams similar opponents to practice against
It also seems to have the effect of "upgrading" friendlies to give these countries games with higher multipliers for FIFA rankings.
(11-22-2017 04:47 PM)AllTideUp Wrote: [ -> ]I completely understand why this would benefit most of the CONCACAF nations.
With that said, it does absolutely zilch for the USA. Same thing for Mexico and probably a few others at that. Actually, it's even worse than that. It's going to knock quality competition off the schedule in exchange for random Caribbean islands. Especially considering where US soccer is right now...in a pit...it behooves the USSF to explore options of getting out of CONCACAF.
Our national team needs quality competition to reach the next echelon. The only way we're going to do that is abandon ship and either go to South America or Europe. Maybe we could take a few with us...like Mexico.
I don't know if the other Federations would be welcoming, but at this point we might as well give it a shot.
Agreed. Admittedly the US is in a poor position to complain about this at the moment due to flopping out of World Cup qualification, but those Nations League home games are not going to fire up US fans, unless the US and Mexico are drawn into the same group, and are not going to challenge USMNT players as much as friendlies against top nations might.
It would be good for the US and Mexican teams if they could join CONMEBOL along with, say, Panama, Costa Rica, and Honduras -- think about a Nations League or CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying with Argentina, Brazil, or Colombia playing matches against the USMNT -- but that seems extremely unlikely. CONMEBOL wouldn't push to make this happen because they don't need us
Norte Americanos.
(03-07-2018 03:39 PM)Wedge Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2017 04:47 PM)AllTideUp Wrote: [ -> ]I completely understand why this would benefit most of the CONCACAF nations.
With that said, it does absolutely zilch for the USA. Same thing for Mexico and probably a few others at that. Actually, it's even worse than that. It's going to knock quality competition off the schedule in exchange for random Caribbean islands. Especially considering where US soccer is right now...in a pit...it behooves the USSF to explore options of getting out of CONCACAF.
Our national team needs quality competition to reach the next echelon. The only way we're going to do that is abandon ship and either go to South America or Europe. Maybe we could take a few with us...like Mexico.
I don't know if the other Federations would be welcoming, but at this point we might as well give it a shot.
Agreed. Admittedly the US is in a poor position to complain about this at the moment due to flopping out of World Cup qualification, but those Nations League home games are not going to fire up US fans, unless the US and Mexico are drawn into the same group, and are not going to challenge USMNT players as much as friendlies against top nations might.
It would be good for the US and Mexican teams if they could join CONMEBOL along with, say, Panama, Costa Rica, and Honduras -- think about a Nations League or CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying with Argentina, Brazil, or Colombia playing matches against the USMNT -- but that seems extremely unlikely. CONMEBOL wouldn't push to make this happen because they don't need us Norte Americanos.
They definitely don't need us, but I'm wondering if they could make some money off of us nonetheless.
If the USA, Mexico, and maybe a couple of others broke away then I think that would be attractive to CONMEBOL in certain respects. I think we could likely bring additional World Cup qualifying spots with us and especially when the tournament grows again then that will open up more opportunities for those nations to get in. It may be at the expense of the USA or Costa Rica on occasion, but surely that's a better deal for us than playing the Bahamas more often.
Also, CCL is a meaningless tournament for the most part. You have Mexico sending good squads and the US is getting better, but that's about it. A Champions League of all the best North and South American leagues, I think, would be more attractive to everyone. It wouldn't really rival what UEFA has created, but maybe it would be a solid 2nd place and perhaps that would also be more attractive to sports networks around the planet. With the time zone differential, we wouldn't have to directly compete with UEFA for time slots on other continents.
(03-09-2018 02:41 PM)AllTideUp Wrote: [ -> ] (03-07-2018 03:39 PM)Wedge Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2017 04:47 PM)AllTideUp Wrote: [ -> ]I completely understand why this would benefit most of the CONCACAF nations.
With that said, it does absolutely zilch for the USA. Same thing for Mexico and probably a few others at that. Actually, it's even worse than that. It's going to knock quality competition off the schedule in exchange for random Caribbean islands. Especially considering where US soccer is right now...in a pit...it behooves the USSF to explore options of getting out of CONCACAF.
Our national team needs quality competition to reach the next echelon. The only way we're going to do that is abandon ship and either go to South America or Europe. Maybe we could take a few with us...like Mexico.
I don't know if the other Federations would be welcoming, but at this point we might as well give it a shot.
Agreed. Admittedly the US is in a poor position to complain about this at the moment due to flopping out of World Cup qualification, but those Nations League home games are not going to fire up US fans, unless the US and Mexico are drawn into the same group, and are not going to challenge USMNT players as much as friendlies against top nations might.
It would be good for the US and Mexican teams if they could join CONMEBOL along with, say, Panama, Costa Rica, and Honduras -- think about a Nations League or CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying with Argentina, Brazil, or Colombia playing matches against the USMNT -- but that seems extremely unlikely. CONMEBOL wouldn't push to make this happen because they don't need us Norte Americanos.
They definitely don't need us, but I'm wondering if they could make some money off of us nonetheless.
If the USA, Mexico, and maybe a couple of others broke away then I think that would be attractive to CONMEBOL in certain respects. I think we could likely bring additional World Cup qualifying spots with us and especially when the tournament grows again then that will open up more opportunities for those nations to get in. It may be at the expense of the USA or Costa Rica on occasion, but surely that's a better deal for us than playing the Bahamas more often.
Also, CCL is a meaningless tournament for the most part. You have Mexico sending good squads and the US is getting better, but that's about it. A Champions League of all the best North and South American leagues, I think, would be more attractive to everyone. It wouldn't really rival what UEFA has created, but maybe it would be a solid 2nd place and perhaps that would also be more attractive to sports networks around the planet. With the time zone differential, we wouldn't have to directly compete with UEFA for time slots on other continents.
An all-Americas Champions League would be much more difficult than the US, Mexico, etc. joining CONMEBOL for World Cup qualifying and maybe a CONMEBOL Nations League. The national-team matches are played during breaks in the club league schedules. Champions League matches are typically played midweek with the participating teams also having to play matches in their own club league on Saturday or Sunday. The travel to and from midweek matches between the US/Mexico and South America would be brutal.
If the US, Mexico, etc. ever did join CONMEBOL, a better approach to Champions League would be to play it in two divisions, north and south, and have the division winners meet in a final. That would keep travel down to the level of the current CLs.
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