CONCACAF Should be at it's Boiling Point

Here we are again, CONCACAF's bi-annual event called the Gold Cup which is played every two years during the odd years. Hosted every odd year in the USA where games are played in 60,000+ NFL stadiums with an average attendance that just scrapes above 15,000.

 

Somewhere over all of this, things remain the same. Year after year after year.  Over the years CONCACAF has gotten the nickname Concashit for how mindboggling they go about things.

 

First of all, Canada and Mexico don't even qualify. They are given automatic berths to the tournament which don't felt FIFA rankings. This has been a problem for Canada especially who have been unable to vault into the Top 6 in the FIFA rankings which then would improve Canada's chances to be dealt a draw for World Cup Qualifying.

 

To add to all this, there are six teams in CONCACAF that are not recognized by FIFA. This means that those teams are ineligible for the World Cup but are fair game for continental cups such as the Gold Cup. This also hinders teams as a win against one of these six nations and no FIFA points are rewarded. Again, that hurts team’s chances of rising in the FIFA rankings.

 

Also, USA always hosts the Gold Cup. The big reason for this is there infrastructure but after 26 years of the same pattern. Things have gotten quite stale.

 

But it gets better, French Guiana, started Florent Malouda who was cap-tied for France. Therefore, this automatically forfeiting the game against Honduras resulting in a 3-0 win for Honduras. If this becomes the case, it would turn the potentially Quarterfinal matchups upside down in an already mediocre tournament.

 

There's no quick fix for this messy situation. The federation is an embarrassment and needs to be changed. Here's how I would do it.

 

• 1. Promote the non FIFA members FIFA status.
• Increase the Tournament to 16 teams
• Change World Cup Qualifying format
• Only host Gold Cup Every 4 years During Leap Year
• Host Gold Cup throughout CONCACAF
  Bullet points two and three will be fixed but that won't solve all of the other issues. Here's how I would distribute the 16 berths for the Gold Cup.
   
  12 Concacaf teams: 9 groups of 4 and 1 of 5. Top team qualifies with the next two best second place finishers.
   
  This would make qualifying for the Gold Cup special to qualify and heartbreaking not to qualify.
   
  2 spots to the bottom two finishers at the previous Copa America. This would put some spice into the tournament by potentially playing a team form other confederations.
   
  Last two spots go to the last place finisher of the Asian Cup and African Cup of Nations. Again, this would make it fun to see other teams compete against CONCACAF teams.
   
  In this format, Venezuela , Ecuador, Togo and Palestine would qualify with the projected Top 12 of Concacaf of Mexico, USA, Costa Rica, Hati, Panama, Curacao, Honduras, Trinidad, Canada Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
   
  With this 16 team field it would create a much more entertaining tournament than a 16 team CONCACAF only field that will either include weak teams such as Belize or Puerto Rico or include more non FIFA members that might not play by the rules and create more messy situations.
   
  CONCACAF is broke and needs to be fixed. 2026 can't come soon enough as CONCACAF will be forced into a revamped system with a 48 team World Cup looming.