Sounder-down-Under is a look at the beautiful game from the other side of the world, written by Seattle ex-pat Drew Dickson.
Last week, Argentine midfielder commented to CentroDeportivo.com (Spanish site) that given the state of play by competitors from their rivals in CONCACAF, perhaps now would be the time to combine CONMEBOL and their North American counterparts. I disagree.
CONMEBOL sends 4.5 teams (depending on the results of the inter-continental playoff) to the men’s World Cup every four years. CONCACAF sends 3.5. So if we did away with the inter-continental playoff, it would mean that Oceania Football Confederation and Asia Football Confederation would have to play against each other every time for that remaining playoff spot. And this is just one competition that we are looking at. We also would need to reaffirm the numbers for the Women’s World Cup, Futsal World Cup, Beach Soccer World Cup, U-17, Olympics … and the list goes on.
And yes, I know that those would not be fixed by tomorrow, or next year (or potentially the year after that). Honestly, my major objection isn’t about who goes to the respective finals for each competition, the length of flights, or even how it would now force the MLS to take off time for International Matches like the other national competitions. My reasoning is because there are a lot of countries that would miss out on chances to represent their nation on the biggest stage the sporting world has to offer.
What would it be called?
Think back to World Cup 2006. Trinidad and Tobago took their place among the footballing elite in Germany. If we were operating in a CON-Combine (and what would we be called, seeing as we have long enough acronyms as it is for both), would they have gotten there? Would we have seen Haiti in the Copa America this year? Would Cuba make the cut?
It is easy to say that the teams who made it to this 100th Anniversary of the Copa America had what it takes to take on the South American teams (ignoring the Mexico loss), but minor footballing nations in the Caribbean would suffer. Anyone who has been beaten by a monster score will tell you that it is tough to come back from. Facing it year after year has the potential to destroy footballing culture. Want to see an example?
Did you know the Caribbean nations have a cricket team that competes internationally? The West Indies (or Windies), face off in test matches against the likes of Australia and England. They used to be fairly good, but have gone through a patch the past fifteen years of being beaten in three days of a five day test (I cannot explain this quickly, but imagine a game that lasts five days, but is cut off on day three because of a score). The Windies don’t have a large population, and as you might imagine not a lot of youngsters want to play cricket at the moment.
As fun as Copa America has been to watch, and as great as it has been for us to see South American stars playing in our home towns I don’t think it should be a yearly thing. For the sake of countries that are looking to make their return to the World Cup, and nations that want to make their debut on the world stage, we must continue to be CONCACAF.
Richard Fleming: USMNT: The case for CONMEBOL and the end to low expectations
Copa America
FIFA
