CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani (left) addresses media at Red Bull Arena ahead of the first match of the 2017 Gold Cup.
HARRISON, N.J. — The 14th edition of the Gold Cup, CONCACAF’s premier tournament, began Friday night at Red Bull Arena.
But before the doubleheader of Group A action featuring matches pitting French Guinea with Canada and Costa Rica against Hondura took place on the pitch, the confederation’s president took the podium at the arena’s press conference room to address the media.
Right off the bat, Victor Montogliani was asked point blank whether he believed the United States and Mexico violated tournament rules, which clearly state federations are “required to participate with their ‘A’ national team.”
The two most successful sides in the tournament’s history have each appeared to leave out notable players who are considered to be guarantees in any of their A squads, but Montagliani believes they’re not in violation of the rule.
“I think we have to be cognizant of the fact that there are players that are injured, there are players that, whether it’s fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, who had this little thing called the confederation cup that Mexico did very well in,” Montagliani said. “That’s the reality of football. There’s a lot of demands on the FIFA calendar, there’s a lot of tournaments and a lot of matches and I think when you have a national team, your A team isn’t just 11 players, you’ll have to have 23 or sometimes even more than that. So they’re not in violation.”
The questions moved quickly from this year’s edition of the Gold Cup to future tournaments, specifically whether the success of last year’s Copa America Centennario, the 100-year anniversary edition of CONMEBOL’s premier competition which was held in the United States, will affect decisions moving forward.
Montagliani said the confederation is always reviewing its process looking for areas of improvement, but would not commit to any major changes aside from his support for extending the amount of participants to 16 from the current number of 12.
“We’re already starting up on (the 2019 Gold Cup) in terms of looking at the format as well,” he said. “I’ve been clear that we’re looking to expand that format to 16 teams. I don’t think anyone is looking beyond a quadrennial cycle here, that’s the reality … we’re very committed to our next few Gold Cups but we’re always reviewing, not only the format but also how we can make things better not only for the confederation but also for the members of the confederation.”
Every edition of the Gold Cup has been held primarily in the United States, with only two editions — 2003 with Mexico, 2015 with Canada — hosting some matches in another country.
This raises questions of whether the tournament will ever be held outside the United States. Montagliani didn’t commit to hosting an entire tournament in another country, but conceded the possibility of a similar format as 20013 & 2015 with other countries hosting select matches.
“I think it’s something we need to look at,” Montagliani said. “Obviously I think the core role will probably still be in the US, for obvious reasons, but I think there’s an opportunity to have venues in the Caribbean and venues in Central America not only to bring the Gold Cup to those regions but also use the Gold Cup as an opportunity to develop not only football in those regions but possibility to develop infrastructure in those regions.”
What would other countries need to do to be able to host the tournament in the future?
“A lot of that is technical stuff … so we would put standards, whether it be lights or field conditions or security, all those things that go along with it,” Montagliani said. “We would use the same standards while being cognizant that if we need to help in those areas we would. We can’t lower our standards, we just need to help people get to the standards.”
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CONCACAF Gold Cup
FIFA
