Canadian soccer boss Victor Montagliani is the new CONCACAF president

[SuperCanuck]

On 15 May, 2016 at 11:12 AM, CanadianSoccerFan said:

I can see now how Victor pulled this off. 

His fluency in French and Spanish was an enormous advantage over the unilingual Larry Mussendon.  The four Caribbean nations (Haiti, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Cuba) that openly supported him prior to the vote were non-English speaking and that is no coincidence.  You can apply this to his backing from Central America.  He could speak to these voters in their own language.

Further to the linguistic advantage, there are currently 6 CONCACAF members that are not members of FIFA (Bonaire, Saint Maarten, St. Martin, French Guyana, Guadeloupe, and Martinique).  Victor included in his election manifesto that he would fight for these members to gain admission to FIFA while Mussendon made no mention of this.  Four of those are French speaking .  Vic was able to tell those members in their own language that he was going to try to get them into FIFA.

That's 20 votes already.  One short of the amount required.

Add to that his offer to expand the gold cup to 16 teams and a few other non-English speaking members like Suriname jumping ship and he got to 25.

In summary, I think Vic managed to break the Caribbean bloc into simply an English-Caribbean bloc which was mathematically beatable.

I would like to see him push for making the Gold Cup a legitimate continental championship, as opposed to the American Open Soccer Fest that it's become.   

[Yohan]

4 hours ago, SuperCanuck said:

I would like to see him push for making the Gold Cup a legitimate continental championship, as opposed to the American Open Soccer Fest that it's become.   

It would need to first start with more CONCACAF teams being competitive vs US and Mexico. Slowly esp Central American teams are getting better, but they just don't have the money to compete against US and Mexico in infrastructure.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, SuperCanuck said:

I would like to see him push for making the Gold Cup a legitimate continental championship, as opposed to the American Open Soccer Fest that it's become.   

I would like for him to make the Gold Cup every 4 years. It just makes the tournament less special to have it every 2 years.

[Unnamed Trialist]

8 hours ago, canta15 said:

I would like for him to make the Gold Cup every 4 years. It just makes the tournament less special to have it every 2 years.

We are already in a region where 3/4 of the teams do not play enough competitively. And you want to cut that back even further? The Caribbean clubs need it as they do qualifiers, C Americans too. We go directly. Otherwise, with the way our WCQ rounds are set up, we would hardly play a properly meaningful match. 

So I don't care, if you don't want to field a full side, then don't. That is your problem. Every 2 years is fine by me--and way better for Canada. 

But hey, let's be really special and play less football, that is just what we need.

[Free kick]

49 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

We are already in a region where 3/4 of the teams do not play enough competitively. And you want to cut that back even further? The Caribbean clubs need it as they do qualifiers, C Americans too. We go directly. Otherwise, with the way our WCQ rounds are set up, we would hardly play a properly meaningful match. 

So I don't care, if you don't want to field a full side, then don't. That is your problem. Every 2 years is fine by me--and way better for Canada. 

But hey, let's be really special and play less football, that is just what we need.

True, but why hold the tournament in the middle of the world cup qualifying process.  Its hard for all those sides and their supporters who have just been eliminated from WCQ (and still licking their wounds) to now have to stare down a competition of reduced prestige.  I find that having to go to the Gold cup and facing those teams that just eliminated you from WCQ is like rubbing salt in the wound.   If you beat them at the Gold cup, they can turn around and laugh at you say " how come you got eliminated and lost to us six weeks ago" ?or how come you are not going to the world cup?  You cant win under those circumstances.   

Inevitably, sides will just start treating it like a series of freindlies.   

Remember when Canada won the Gold Cup?  It was in February of 2000.  Later in the same year, 20k plus showed up in Edmonton for the first WCQ game.   The number of people joining this forum mushroomed.   The maistream press, who paid as much attention to the sport of soccer as they did to the sport of Bocce, took note and made it the lead story. 

Now imagine, if that Gold cup victory would have happened just after we would have gotten eliminated in WCQ by T&T and mex and have managed only one goal in six games in the process.   Would that have had the same effect? Would any of that have happened? 

They are shooting themselves in the foot by holding the gold cup during the hex. 

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

We are already in a region where 3/4 of the teams do not play enough competitively. And you want to cut that back even further? The Caribbean clubs need it as they do qualifiers, C Americans too. We go directly. Otherwise, with the way our WCQ rounds are set up, we would hardly play a properly meaningful match. 

So I don't care, if you don't want to field a full side, then don't. That is your problem. Every 2 years is fine by me--and way better for Canada. 

But hey, let's be really special and play less football, that is just what we need.

South America (bar this tournament), Europe, and Asia are all on 4 year cycles for their tournaments. They make it work. If you want your precious competitive games so much perhaps you could add more games to qualification.

[Unnamed Trialist]

6 minutes ago, Free kick said:

True, but why hold the tournament in the middle of the world cup qualifying process.  Its hard for all those sides and their supporters who have just been eliminated from WCQ (and still licking their wounds) to now have to stare down a competition of reduced prestige.  I find that having to go to the Gold cup and facing those teams that just eliminated you from WCQ is like rubbing salt in the wound.   If you beat them at the Gold cup, they can turn around and laugh at you say you got eliminated or how come you are not going to the world cup. You cant win under those circumstances.  

I don't see this being a problem for the S American teams. They are smack in the middle of WCQ, and are taking this Copa very seriously. I think Suárez crying last night after his injury was for fear of missing it. I don't think anyone laughs at anyone, regardless, in S America: I bet a lot of fans would take winning it over making the next WC.

My opinion is that there is one prestigious tournament we have a chance of winning as a nation. Silverware for Canada. It is the Gold Cup. You don't even have to be dominating the region to do it. Just a string of good luck and the right team coming together. Give us the chance to do that every 2 years, and I am glad to have it. Keep pushing hard and we are sure to win again. 

Are the rest of Canada fans on this board really that uninterested in lifting a cup?

[Unnamed Trialist]

2 minutes ago, canta15 said:

South America (bar this tournament), Europe, and Asia are all on 4 year cycles for their tournaments. They make it work. If you want your precious competitive games so much perhaps you could add more games to qualification.

Yes, S America is on a four year cycle, right: how long has that been the case now?

Exactly how many four year cycles have they gone through so far?

But okay, if you eliminate the extra GC, play more qualifiers.

I am all for seeing a longer WCQ procedure including all Concacaf sides. Not necessarily beneficial for Canada, but good for the lesser teams and great to see them build their programs.

[The Ref]

With Victor's new position, does the CSA needs to elect a new president?

[Unnamed Trialist]

1 minute ago, The Ref said:

With Victor's new position, does the CSA needs to elect a new president?

I think most regions do not double up, eg Leoz in Conmebol was Paraguay president and left to head up the region for like 25 years. UEFA the president is not a national president as well. In Concacaf, was it the case?

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Yes, S America is on a four year cycle, right: how long has that been the case now?

Exactly how many four year cycles have they gone through so far?

But okay, if you eliminate the extra GC, play more qualifiers.

I am all for seeing a longer WCQ procedure including all Concacaf sides. Not necessarily beneficial for Canada, but good for the lesser teams and great to see them build their programs.

They have been doing every 4 years since 2007. They are just having one special tournament for the 100 year anniversary.

[rob.notenboom]

1 hour ago, The Ref said:

With Victor's new position, does the CSA needs to elect a new president?

He has one year to step down. When he steps down, the current CSA VP will take over on an interim basis until the next AGM, or at least this is what Mont Vic said during his CONCACAF Pres presser a little while ago. I think that actually threw most of the journalists on the call as few knew what the actually rules were.

[SuperCanuck]

17 hours ago, canta15 said:

I would like for him to make the Gold Cup every 4 years. It just makes the tournament less special to have it every 2 years.

I didn't say that, but that's part of what I meant.  It's a mickey mouse tournament hosted by one country (mostly) every year masquerading as a continental championship.

[SuperCanuck]

17 hours ago, Yohan said:

It would need to first start with more CONCACAF teams being competitive vs US and Mexico. Slowly esp Central American teams are getting better, but they just don't have the money to compete against US and Mexico in infrastructure.

I don't understand why other teams have to be more competitive before making the Gold Cup a legitimate continental championship.  Keeping it the way it is only benefits the US and Mexico.  The US hosts the thing (with a bit of an exception this year) which is just as good for Mexican fans as hosting it themselves.  Plus being played every two years, they're the only two countries who have teams deep enough to deal with this.  The Gold Cup is just a showcase for how corrupt CONCACAF has been.  

[Grizzly]

No one wants Canada to play fewer competitive fixtures but I think in the end it is better both for the tournament and our own competitiveness if it becomes a more legitimate and prestigious tournament with a higher level of play which means playing it every 4 years, rotating the hosting country and coming up with a decent name for it. Its current state as a B team US-Mexico and friends exhibition series makes it a minor competition not really much better than friendlies that is focused on short term profit from the inevitable sold out US-Mexico matches that they do their best to ensure occur every final. I think we would gain by having a tournament that was taken a lot more seriously and with an intensity at least approaching that of WCQ and at least sometimes played in the intimidating stadiums of Central America than from the current format playing the Costa Rican B team in a half empty US stadium. From a cultural and political standpoint a presitigious rotating tournament would also be great for North American integration as well as being a lot more interesting for fans than the current competition.

[Unnamed Trialist]

3 hours ago, SuperCanuck said:

I didn't say that, but that's part of what I meant.  It's a mickey mouse tournament hosted by one country (mostly) every year masquerading as a continental championship.

Hurray for SuperCanuck. He is now telling us that the only competition our senior men have won in the last hundred years was a "mickey mouse tournament".

I hang my head in shame every time I think about Forrest and Hastings and Nash and all those guys wasting their time down there, masquerading as winners against Colombia and Mexico.

(or maybe SuperCanuck is just a bit mixed up , thinking we won in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl, near Disneyland, when it was really at Memorial in LA.)

 

[MtlMario]

14 hours ago, Free kick said:

True, but why hold the tournament in the middle of the world cup qualifying process.  Its hard for all those sides and their supporters who have just been eliminated from WCQ (and still licking their wounds) to now have to stare down a competition of reduced prestige.  I find that having to go to the Gold cup and facing those teams that just eliminated you from WCQ is like rubbing salt in the wound.   If you beat them at the Gold cup, they can turn around and laugh at you say " how come you got eliminated and lost to us six weeks ago" ?or how come you are not going to the world cup?  You cant win under those circumstances.   

Inevitably, sides will just start treating it like a series of freindlies.   

Remember when Canada won the Gold Cup?  It was in February of 2000.  Later in the same year, 20k plus showed up in Edmonton for the first WCQ game.   The number of people joining this forum mushroomed.   The maistream press, who paid as much attention to the sport of soccer as they did to the sport of Bocce, took note and made it the lead story. 

Now imagine, if that Gold cup victory would have happened just after we would have gotten eliminated in WCQ by T&T and mex and have managed only one goal in six games in the process.   Would that have had the same effect? Would any of that have happened? 

They are shooting themselves in the foot by holding the gold cup during the hex. 

Hey watch what how you talk about BOCCE.  PS Jason Devos for president of CSA.

[SuperCanuck]

6 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Hurray for SuperCanuck. He is now telling us that the only competition our senior men have won in the last hundred years was a "mickey mouse tournament".

I hang my head in shame every time I think about Forrest and Hastings and Nash and all those guys wasting their time down there, masquerading as winners against Colombia and Mexico.

(or maybe SuperCanuck is just a bit mixed up , thinking we won in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl, near Disneyland, when it was really at Memorial in LA.)

 

Hurray to you for wanting to provoke an argument.  What's with this forum lately?

I'm not taking anything away from that championship.  I'm talking about the way the thing itself is run, it has nothing to do with what Canada achieved that year.

[Yohan]

10 hours ago, SuperCanuck said:

I don't understand why other teams have to be more competitive before making the Gold Cup a legitimate continental championship.  Keeping it the way it is only benefits the US and Mexico.  The US hosts the thing (with a bit of an exception this year) which is just as good for Mexican fans as hosting it themselves.  Plus being played every two years, they're the only two countries who have teams deep enough to deal with this.  The Gold Cup is just a showcase for how corrupt CONCACAF has been.  

I don't disagree.

But in order to be considered a 'legitimate' continental championship, you gotta have more competitive teams.

As for hosting, I suppose they can try to spread out the hosting to several countries per tourney, but it cost a lot of money to build the infrastructure that's good enough to host Gold Cup in most CONCACAF nations.

[Unnamed Trialist]

1 hour ago, SuperCanuck said:

Hurray to you for wanting to provoke an argument.  What's with this forum lately?

I'm not taking anything away from that championship.  I'm talking about the way the thing itself is run, it has nothing to do with what Canada achieved that year.

Okay, so as I understand it, you are retracting what you said about it being a mickey mouse competition. 

Because if you are not, it has EVERYTHING to do with the only thing Canada has ever accomplished in our lifetimes, qualifying for Mexico '86 notwithstanding.

[CanadianSoccerFan]

Victor did an interview with Alexi Lalas prior to the election where he indicated was open to moving the gold cup to a 4 year cycle to accommodate a regular Pan-American tournament in cooperation with CONMEBOL.

Interview starts at 40:00.  The part about the gold cup and copa America is at 51:00

https://art19.com/shows/the-mutant-gene-podcast/episodes/248c4e41-5aab-41ad-ba18-a11b3bba9c4e

 

 

 

 

[Ivan]

^ That would be the best way to go IMHO.

[Free kick]

14 hours ago, MtlMario said:

Hey watch what how you talk about BOCCE.  PS Jason Devos for president of CSA.

Your right about Bocce.  Its a clean sport.   Whereas just about every other sport, has been tainted by performance enhancing drug stories.   Here is hoping that they dont start testing for espresso levels in the bloodstream. 

 

[nolbertos]

11 hours ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

Victor did an interview with Alexi Lalas prior to the election where he indicated was open to moving the gold cup to a 4 year cycle to accommodate a regular Pan-American tournament in cooperation with CONMEBOL.

Interview starts at 40:00.  The part about the gold cup and copa America is at 51:00

https://art19.com/shows/the-mutant-gene-podcast/episodes/248c4e41-5aab-41ad-ba18-a11b3bba9c4e

 

 

 

 

I think this Copa America is just a test to see how the markets react to it.  If it makes a ton of money like CONCACF and CONMEBOL expect, then Gold Cup will be used as a qualifier to the Copa America.  Still think Mont Vic could "ahem" convince our CONMEBOL friends that since Canada won a Gold Cup in 2000, we should get an automatic invite along with US and Mexico to the 16 team Copa America.

[SuperCanuck]

14 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Okay, so as I understand it, you are retracting what you said about it being a mickey mouse competition. 

Because if you are not, it has EVERYTHING to do with the only thing Canada has ever accomplished in our lifetimes, qualifying for Mexico '86 notwithstanding.

No, it's still run as a mickey mouse tournament.  It's hosted almost exclusively by one country and held every two years to stretch the smaller teams beyond their capabilities, which caters to the US and Mexico.  

That actually makes Canada's win an even bigger achievement than you're giving them credit for.

If you still want to argue, please find someone else.

Thank you