(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.