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Escape from Concacaf


Gian-Luca

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Based upon styles of football played, I feel that Canada (and the US) should play in UEFA.

I looked a bit more into Australia's move: both federations, AFC and OFC, agreed to the move, so FIFA allowed it to happen. There is no way that any team in Eastern Europe would want to have to travel to play a qualifier in Vancouver, so UEFA would never allow this to happen.

The only way I could see Canada moving was if FIFA, for some reason (???) wanted to do some massive overhaul of the regional zones: creating a Latin and South America / Caribbean zone (Mexico south), moving US and Canada with Europe and perhaps an entire elimination of the Oceania zone (joining Asia) to create just 4 federations. I don't see anyone other than Canada sparking such a discussion.

We are stuck in CONCACAF, period.

Canada needs to first improve (as the US did) and be good enough to overcome the horrible officiating. They also should look into playing a bit of "diplomacy" and participate in some "we'll scratch your back, if you scratch ours". I don't know the inner-workings of CONCACAF politics (and perhaps neither does the CSA), so I don't know where we could start on this one.

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Like many others here, we're all fed up with CONCACRAP and I'd love to leave it. But realistically, it ain't gonna happen. We've gotten better in the last number of years but others have improved quicker than we have. We just have to work harder at qualifying out of the region we're in now.

Also Bxl Boy, I dont think we'd finish top 8 in a N & S American confederation. Just look at CONMEBOL, who are we better than in S. America alone really? Even Venezuela & Peru would be a stretch.

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quote:Originally posted by Lurker

Good read, but the unfortunate reality is we're not going anywhere. No federation would want us. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense geographically and we wouldn't be an attractive addition to any confederation.

Having a country with a good economy is always attractive. With that in mind, the only way we're leaving confederations is if Concacaf getss dissolved and the Americas become one.

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This is a completely nonsensical discussion! Yes, we'd all love to be part of Euro 20XX but it ain't gonna happen.

An America's region could be possible, but even then.....who are we gonna finish ahead of in S.A. as mentioned above? Venezuela? Chile? Peru? Frankly, we haven't got a prayer finishing about Urugual, Paraguay....hell, even Ven, Chile and Peru would cause us massive problems....especially considering we can't beat a Honduras "b" team despite dominating them.

Sorry for being so cynical. C

The only answer is that we pour money into the programs, invest in DEVELOPMENT of YOUTH (and not just those that can afford to pay for the provincial programs and happen to live within an hour to 1.5 hour drive from the training centre) and GET BETTER. Period.

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Fak it, we just need to start straight up bribing CONCACAF officials to give us the calls, then the games would at least be even again. The refs are ensured money if they get the call to ref the world cup for our fakin region, so we might as well make it worth their while and buy them a place in the Salt Springs or buy some island like St. VAG and get them a mansion there. When the system's corrupt, you play with it or lose by it. We've been losing for years, time to sell our souls and rip the system hard.

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So far the only "weird" geography situation is Australia being in the Asian zone & Israel in the UEFA(politics here come into play). I say invest into soccer, grassroots, infrastructure & people. Then you can win in the CONCACAF, otherwise we will have problems anywhere. Once we get 3 SSS make a Public Announcment for a Gold Cup bid on TV(CBC/SRC, Sportsnet) & publicly state the fact that the US has hosted the last 8/10 GoldCups How come? Do it During a Canada-US soccer game IN the US as to create a buzz. Blaming refs & Jack Warner only works to a certain point, the rest lays in our hands.

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quote:Originally posted by Winnipeg Fury

We are the gateway to the Pacific, I say we publicly go after Asia, as did Australia.

It would cause CONCACAF enough embarrassment that they may actually consider doing something.

We have nothing to lose.

I see two problems:

1) Would CONCACAF notice or care if we left.

2) Asia wouldn't be necessarily easier to get through, plus the travel would be worse.

But which Voyageur wouldn't fancy an away trip to Uzbekistan? :D

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quote:Originally posted by Winnipeg Fury

We are the gateway to the Pacific, I say we publicly go after Asia, as did Australia.

Australia has a sound geographical case for being part of Asia (i.e. other Indian Ocean island nations like Indonesia and East Timor are immediately due north and already part of the Asian Football Confederation). Canada does not. There is zero chance of Canada being allowed to leave CONCACAF.

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I think we should join Oceania. Theoretically, that is the only other association to which we could make any kind of legitimate claim to being a part of. Provided that we can beat NZ, we would then participate in every confederations cup, every World youth championship and play one of the qualifier's in Asia or Africa in a home and away series to determine whether we qualify for the World Cup.

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quote:Originally posted by An Observer

I think we should join Oceania. Theoretically, that is the only other association to which we could make any kind of legitimate claim to being a part of. Provided that we can beat NZ, we would then participate in every confederations cup, every World youth championship and play one of the qualifier's in Asia or Africa in a home and away series to determine whether we qualify for the World Cup.

How?

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I am 100% certain that BBtB is right, of course. But, nevertheless it is an attractive thought/dream.

FWIW, I think the only argument that could be made is that we're as much a part of Europe as Israel or Turkey is. I don't think its true, but the argument could be made. For instance, there are several European countries that are closer to Canada than they are to Israel.

Honestly, though (without a miraculous draw) we would never qualify for a major tournament, playing meaningful matches against Italy or Portugal or England would be almost as good for a lot of us.

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Why everyone brings the example of Israel??? Kazakhstan has a worst case in term of geography.

As for the subject, what about winning a few WCQ home games to help our case for a Confederation switch? I don't think we have won a meaningfull WCQ (outside of the home and away against minnows) home game since 1997 against Costa Rica.....

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quote:Originally posted by Macksam

Having a country with a good economy is always attractive. With that in mind, the only way we're leaving confederations is if Concacaf getss dissolved and the Americas become one.

We have a good economy but we don't have a history of filing up stadiums for soccer. If we were to join UEFA I could see us filling up the seats at home games and selling more merchandise but it's not like UEFA is going broke and needs money from this economy (whatever amount that would be). Joining another confederation would probably generate as much of a ripple effect in this country (for soccer) as dropping a pebble in Lake Ontario.

Personally I'm not a big fan of all this quitting talk, it's fun if done in jest but realistically it's pointless. We need to get our heads out of the sand and kick some butt in CONCACRAP. [^]

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quote:Originally posted by bettermirror

This is a completely nonsensical discussion! Yes, we'd all love to be part of Euro 20XX but it ain't gonna happen.

Frankly, we haven't got a prayer finishing about Uruguay, Paraguay....hell, even Ven, Chile and Peru would cause us massive problems....especially considering we can't beat a Honduras "b" team despite dominating them.

Sorry for being so cynical. C

The only answer is that we pour money into the programs, invest in DEVELOPMENT of YOUTH and GET BETTER. Period.

Agree 100%. There are 3 1/2 WC spots from CONCACAF.

We cannot even make past the group stage (past 2 times), let alone

vie for one of the spots. Canada (and the CSA) has to do more

to display it's serious about making it to THAT LEVEL.

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quote:Originally posted by gkhs

I am 100% certain that BBtB is right, of course. But, nevertheless it is an attractive thought/dream.

FWIW, I think the only argument that could be made is that we're as much a part of Europe as Israel or Turkey is. I don't think its true, but the argument could be made.

How could the argument be made? Part of Turkey, including its biggest city, is situated in Europe.

I know I've critisized CONCACAF's WC qualifying format, but at the end of the day it is the 2nd or 3rd easiest confederation to qualify from. And apart from the first 2 games, all WCQ matches are good tests for Canada. In any other region they would either have no chance to qualify or play minnows more than half the time only to get killed at the WC finals should they get that far. At least by qualifying through CONCACAF it proves you should be able to hold your own in the finals of the World Cup.

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quote:Originally posted by Cheeta

And here I thought it was just a lark...

And you were right, my article was very much tongue in cheek. But it is fun to see the arguments that are being put forth. I still like the idea of forming our own region. Maybe we could invite St. Pierre et Miquelon for our continental championship the same way Guadeloupe and Martinique can play in the Gold Cup.

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If the US can make a go of it in CONCACAF, so can we. I'd like to see us host the next Gold Cup. I think we could do a better job and maybe this would get us some breaks from the powers that be. Having said this, I'm not sure a "Nordic" confederation is that crazy:

Russia

Canada

Sweden

Norway

Finland

Iceland

Faroe Islands

Ireland

Similar league schedule and similar climate would seem to be the most obvious reasons. Unfortunately, we might very well finish 5th or lower in this group, and I'm not sure one could justify more than 2.5-3 spots. All we need is for Guus Hiddink to leave Russia and have them miss out on a few major tournaments. :)

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