Canadian Premier League

[matty]

15 minutes ago, grande said:

What are the odds we can get Greenland into CONCACAF?  They'd be a good (easy) opponent in NAFU!

They need into fifa first and they would need concacaf supporting them. Currently Denmark is championing them entering uefa and fifa. I wanna make a petition asking the csa to support greenland joining concacaf

[Mister215Guy]

1 hour ago, Ansem said:

What can I say? Copa America Centenario was fun! Watching American analyst claiming they were on Columbia's level just to get dominated and seeing their speechless faces on TV....filled with much needed humility? Priceless

Americans always overrate their national team and MLS. Honestly the US was the worst team in the Copa and if FIFA rankings were accurate they wouldn't be near the top 50. Having the US ranked in the 20's or teens is an insult to other countries. I bet if Canada played against the US in a tournament now Canada would embarrass the yanks badly. Then what excuses would the American reporters come up with?

[Mister215Guy]

1 hour ago, Ansem said:

We should do like the Europeans and just have a full qualifying schedule like Montagliani seems to be hinting at.

This is a good idea. It will be fun to watch Caribbean minnows upset the US. It would also give Canada a chance to eliminate the yanks from the World Cup just like pre-1990.

[matty]

10 minutes ago, Mister215Guy said:

Americans always overrate their national team and MLS. Honestly the US was the worst team in the Copa and if FIFA rankings were accurate they wouldn't be near the top 50. Having the US ranked in the 20's or teens is an insult to other countries. I bet if Canada played against the US in a tournament now Canada would embarrass the yanks badly. Then what excuses would the American reporters come up with?

 

11 minutes ago, Mister215Guy said:

This is a good idea. It will be fun to watch Caribbean minnows upset the US. It would also give Canada a chance to eliminate the yanks from the World Cup just like pre-1990.

You're a troll correct?

[Mister215Guy]

1 minute ago, matty said:

 

You're a troll correct?

No, I just hate the US and think that Canada shouldn't feel we're below them when Canada has a much better understanding of soccer and we're too good to look to the US for anything.

[matty]

4 minutes ago, Mister215Guy said:

No, I just hate the US and think that Canada shouldn't feel we're below them when Canada has a much better understanding of soccer and we're too good to look to the US for anything.

That's all well and good but even we admit the US is currently in a better place than us soccer wise.

[matty]

The CPL isn't about "fuck America, we can do this better" it's about "we actually need to get better because what we're doing isn't working"

[Kent]

4 hours ago, matty said:

Few changes
-Canada, The US and Mexico rotate hosting duties (until another nation is up the the task of hosting)
-Regional Qualifying continues with a reestablished NAFU consisting of Canada, US, Mexico, Cuba, Bermuda, Bahamas and Belize
-Spot allocation
   -Host of Cup: 1
   -NAFU: 4
   -CFU: 4
   -CAFU: 4
   -Teams ranked 5 and 6 enter into playoffs with the 3 winner earning spots
-Semi-Finalists get invites to Copa America

I agree with @Ansem that we should ditch regional qualifying. It doesn't make sense to me to have a qualifying system that would guarantee at least one of Cuba, Bermuda, Bahamas, or Belize make it in, and leave out 2 of the non-Belize Central American countries guaranteed to not make it.

I think qualifying games are important to make the tournament more meaningful, and we Canadian fans need to face the fact that may mean we don't make it into every tournament. It's corrupt to try to tailor qualifying to ensure we always make it. We need to fix our program if we want to always qualify.

[matty]

3 minutes ago, Kent said:

I agree with @Ansem that we should ditch regional qualifying. It doesn't make sense to me to have a qualifying system that would guarantee at least one of Cuba, Bermuda, Bahamas, or Belize make it in, and leave out 2 of the non-Belize Central American countries guaranteed to not make it.

I think qualifying games are important to make the tournament more meaningful, and we Canadian fans need to face the fact that may mean we don't make it into every tournament. It's corrupt to try to tailor qualifying to ensure we always make it. We need to fix our program if we want to always qualify.

I think you misread my pitch there. It's possible all of Central America would make it under my model, which I admit could be an issue but if expanded to 16 teams might end up the result already.

The issue with full qualifying is that it could really hurt poorer nations to have to deal with that style of qualifying for basically 2 full years

[matty]

Another issue with full qualify is that no matter what, it's going to be hard to balance twice in 4 years without going overboard with games. Keeping the Gold Cup regional works.

[Kent]

26 minutes ago, matty said:

I think you misread my pitch there. It's possible all of Central America would make it under my model, which I admit could be an issue but if expanded to 16 teams might end up the result already.

The issue with full qualifying is that it could really hurt poorer nations to have to deal with that style of qualifying for basically 2 full years

I don't get it. The post I originally quoted said 4 teams from your North American region, and 4 from Central America, and 4 from Caribbean would qualify. How does your regional qualifying system allow for all Central American teams to make it?

I haven't done the math on how CONCACAF wide qualifying would happen and how many games each country would have to play, but it would definitely be less than WCQ since you only have to eliminate 23 of 35 teams. Hopefully it wouldn't be too much for the smaller nations to handle.

[matty]

2 hours ago, Kent said:

I don't get it. The post I originally quoted said 4 teams from your North American region, and 4 from Central America, and 4 from Caribbean would qualify. How does your regional qualifying system allow for all Central American teams to make it?

I haven't done the math on how CONCACAF wide qualifying would happen and how many games each country would have to play, but it would definitely be less than WCQ since you only have to eliminate 23 of 35 teams. Hopefully it wouldn't be too much for the smaller nations to handle.

Host+4 NAFU+4 CA+4 Caribbean+3 from playoffs (played by the 5th and 6th place finishers from the 3 qualifying routes). 16 teams total.

I'll go over my idea cause since the original post I went crazy and came up with something. THIS WILL GET MESSY

CONCACAF has 41 members (35 are FIFA members). 25 are in the Caribbean which is the number 1 issues. My idea would reduce CFU to 22 teams.

For Gold Qualifying, all of NAFU and CAFU are entered into their qualifying routes as are CFU top 4. The 4 lowest CFU members play a playoff eliminating 2 to give us 16 non-qualified teams from CFU who then play playoffs to reduce the number to 8 qualified CFU teams.

NAFU and CAFU have tournies with 2 groups of 3 teams while CFU has 4 groups of 3. The top 2 teams from the NAFU and CAFU groups make the Gold Cup while the 4 group winners from CFU do (all teams are then pooled based on their final rankings in their tournaments).

The 2 NAFU and CAFU teams that didn't reach semis are entered into the lucky loser playoffs along with the 5th and 6th place teams from CFU. All 6 are randomly drawn into a pairing and then play a single game in a neutral area (let's call it "Florida") with the winners getting into the Gold Cup.

To add to this the 12 teams from CFU, 6 from NAFU and CAFU along with the Gold Cup host nation (25 teams) are all enter into WCC, in 5 groups of 5 with the best 4 group winners getting a World Cup spot while the 5th best group winner plays a playoff again AFC's playoff team (these number are based on CONCACAF being given 4.5 spots in the future).

This model arguably provides the smaller Caribbean nations a route they can succeed in to make the Gold Cup and mid-level CONCACAF nations (including Canada) a Big 3 free route to the World Cup

[masster]

So, about that Canadian Premier League...

[matty]

58 minutes ago, masster said:

So, about that Canadian Premier League...

Alright.....what would everyone here be like if a few CPL clubs decided to sign MLS-based USMNT regulars prior to season 1? 

[Complete Homer]

5 minutes ago, matty said:

Alright.....what would everyone here be like if a few CPL clubs decided to sign MLS-based USMNT regulars prior to season 1? 

It'd be great seeing a few USMNT fanboys lose their mind

But really, the league needs quality additions regardless of where they come from, it's no big deal. The quota is there to protect opportunities, not ensure every minute goes to Canadians. 

That said, just from a marketing perspective, I imagine the international spots will be filled with brits for marketing purposes, with a few young CONCACAF providing cheap quality too

[matty]

3 minutes ago, Complete Homer said:

That said, just from a marketing perspective, I imagine the international spots will be filled with brits for marketing purposes, with a few young CONCACAF providing cheap quality too

I'd question that. I've read some articles about how Latin signings result in more TV attention than European ones do (excluding DPs and even there dos Santos apparently gave TV ratings a bigger boast than any other LA signing outside of Beckham).

While I don't think signing Latin players would have the same impact here, Caribbean ones might in some cities.

[Complete Homer]

5 hours ago, matty said:

I'd question that. I've read some articles about how Latin signings result in more TV attention than European ones do (excluding DPs and even there dos Santos apparently gave TV ratings a bigger boast than any other LA signing outside of Beckham).

While I don't think signing Latin players would have the same impact here, Caribbean ones might in some cities.

I'm assuming that's for MLS? That's probably just drawing some viewers off the huge Liga MX fanbase

[Ansem]

6 hours ago, matty said:

Alright.....what would everyone here be like if a few CPL clubs decided to sign MLS-based USMNT regulars prior to season 1? 

I expect Internationals to be preferred over American players almost at every turn

[Admin]

No ethnic pandering.  Sign the best players you can for the $. 

Want to sign an Italian? 

Sorry he is the wrong Italian.

Oh he is the right Italian? 

He is too old.

Oh he is not too old?

He is from the wrong team

Oh he is from the right team?

He was just a sub

These conversations always regress to some excuse not to go.  So just don't bother. Set reasonable expectations and sign the best players you can and the people that actually like the game will show up, not find excuses not to go.

 

[dyslexic nam]

8 hours ago, matty said:

Alright.....what would everyone here be like if a few CPL clubs decided to sign MLS-based USMNT regulars prior to season 1? 

 

Personally, I have no issue with this as long as it doesn't stop the signing of Canadian kids (or established nats currently with Unattached FC).  There will always have to be balance, and the priority will always need to be Canucks, but I don't see CPL as an insular league that is xenophobic when it comes to foreign players.  Much like MLS with its preferential treatment of Americans that stops well short of exclusivity.

I look at TFC's success, in part because the play of Altidore and Bradley (not to mention a certain Italian), and it seems like we need to make room for some foreign content.  If they can improve the quality of play, without sacrificing dommstic development capacity, I think some allowance for foreign players would add to, rather than detracts from, the league. 

 

[Kent]

12 hours ago, matty said:

Host+4 NAFU+4 CA+4 Caribbean+3 from playoffs (played by the 5th and 6th place finishers from the 3 qualifying routes). 16 teams total.

Ah, I misunderstood the playoff. I thought that was about determining teams to go on to the Copa America.

Back on topic, of course there will be non-Canadians in the CPL, and I don't much care where they come from. As others have said, as long as the league is still able to develop Canadian players as well, then it's all fine. I doubt they would look to Brits for the most part, simply because the English leagues have a lot of money and tend to overpay their players. So the good teams in CPL at least will look to stretch their dollar more and find better value for money. It will be interesting to see though, I imagine it will take some time for scouting networks to become big enough and good enough to really do a great job of recruiting.

[matty]

3 hours ago, Complete Homer said:

I'm assuming that's for MLS? That's probably just drawing some viewers off the huge Liga MX fanbase

Without doubt. Liga MX is bigger in the US than any other league. While Caribbean leagues aren't big deals, we've seen how large there fanbases are at National team games. I'm not saying Caribbean players would be a big deal here but I wouldn't be shocked if we do see CPL teams try to appeal to Jamaicans or Trinidadian and Tobagonians or Haitians by signing a few national team players.

[dyslexic nam]

1 hour ago, matty said:

Without doubt. Liga MX is bigger in the US than any other league. While Caribbean leagues aren't big deals, we've seen how large there fanbases are at National team games. I'm not saying Caribbean players would be a big deal here but I wouldn't be shocked if we do see CPL teams try to appeal to Jamaicans or Trinidadian and Tobagonians or Haitians by signing a few national team players.

I see those kinds of players offering the best value for money for a fledgling league as well.  I know the standard of play is very different, but if you compare the level of pay in most European leagues versus the Caribbean and Latin American countries, it seems like CONCACAF countries would offer a better chance of getting the kind of affordable journeymen players that may be needed to populate CPL teams at the outset.

[maccaliam]

Sorry if I've missed this point, but is it definitely TFC that wants in the league and the CSA are considering? Or could it just be MLSE as an owner? I ask because I was thinking MLSE might just want in to get a cut of the "Canadian version of SUM" that the CSA supposedly wants created for the league and its owners, without directly involving TFC. 

[Mister215Guy]

It's best for the CPL to have nothing to do with MLS or USSF. The US is the worst example of how to become a soccer country since they haven't made any progress since 2000. If Giovinco played in a Canadian league there wouldn't be a stigma like you just saw.