Confederación de Fútbol Americano

[Garrick]

Infantino reportedly wants to merge CONCACAF and CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying

Reports out of Mexico and South America on Saturday indicate that FIFA President Gianni Infantino wants to continue his drastic changes to the World Cup by altering the qualification process for two of FIFA’s confederations.

According to reports, Infantino has a proposal ready to merge CONCACAF and CONMEBOL’s World Cup qualifying formats into one big competition. The new format would consist of 46 countries playing for 14 World Cup spots.

This would be in conjunction with his earlier proposal of expanding the World Cup itself to a 40 or 48-team format from its current 32-team field. It’s believed that Infantino will introduce both proposals to the FIFA Council to be held this month.

If approved, both CONCACAF and CONMEBOL would compete against each other to qualify for the 2026 World Cup. It remains to be seen how exactly the 46 country field would be narrowed down from CONCACAF’s perspective with so many different countries involved in many different rounds.

While all of these proposals are still in the idea stage, it’s clear that Infantino has a real desire to make significant changes to the world’s biggest sporting event. If he has his way, we’re going to see a lot more high intensity matches in the western hemisphere come next decade.

http://www.starsandstripesfc.com/20...conmebol-world-cup-qualifying-merge-infantino

Ooooooooh snap.

Still against 40-team World Cup (the bottom 4 are normally cannon fodder as is), I'm all for a rowdier qualification schedule.

 

[summerisle]

http://www.starsandstripesfc.com/20...conmebol-world-cup-qualifying-merge-infantino

Ooooooooh snap.

Still against 40-team World Cup (the bottom 4 are normally cannon fodder as is), I'm all for a rowdier qualification schedule.

Who plays in conmebol ?

 

[muddywolfjohnson]

the US boys playing in bogota and buenos aires could be quite a laugh.

 

[Garrick]

Who plays in conmebol ?

Nobody of note, that's for sure.

USA USA USA

 

[summerisle]

Nobody of note, that's for sure.

USA USA USA

Good job I wasn't that interested.

 

[Garrick]

Good job I wasn't that interested.

I am rededicating this thread to Monroe Doctrine political cartoons.

We better get our laugh in now and hope that 2026 does get moved to the US, because otherwise we might not be qualifying.

 

[Billy Dean]

Would be a shame to dilute conmebol.

 

[mezzrow]

Si, se puede.

 

[Rook]

Get rid of the gold cup and the Copa america. Create a western hemisphere cup every 4 years. WC qualifying is fine how it is.

 

[ilikecheese]

Would be a shame to dilute conmebol.

In theory more Conmebol teams could qualify.

 

[NEWSWEETTOFFEE]

Maybe they will have european style qualifications?

 

[obc]

the US boys playing in bogota and buenos aires could be quite a laugh.

Bogota would be brutal given it's 8600ft altitude.

Buenos Aires notsomuch. Argentina's recent qualifier vs Paraguay was held in Cordoba. Argentina needed the win (didn't get it, first PY Cup Qualifier win in Argentina ever), but sans Messi it seems BA is a library for their matches so it was played elsewhere.

Agree it would likely improve chances for at least one more CONMEBOL team to get in the WC.

 

[Garrick]

Bogota would be brutal given it's 8600ft altitude.

Buenos Aires notsomuch. Argentina's recent qualifier vs Paraguay was held in Cordoba. Argentina needed the win (didn't get it, first PY Cup Qualifier win in Argentina ever), but sans Messi it seems BA is a library for their matches so it was played elsewhere.

Agree it would likely improve chances for at least one more CONMEBOL team to get in the WC.

It'd be fun to have some more iconic, high stakes World Cup Qualifying games though. Outside of the quadrennial tradition of the games at Azteca and Columbus, most are low stakes affairs or just painful to watch.

Every now and then you get a good one (the Colorado Snow Bowl vs Costa Rica was one of my favorite WCQ matches of all time), but matches at the Office or Saprissa? Pretty cringey.

It's a common tactic in CONCACAF qualifying to keep your field as crappy as possible to try and unsettle the US and Mexico. I'd rather play in Buenos Aires, really.

 

[obc]

It's a common tactic in CONCACAF qualifying to keep your field as crappy as possible to try and unsettle the US and Mexico. I'd rather play in Buenos Aires, really.

Oh yeah, playing in BA would be a lot of fun. Great city, have had a great time every time I've been there. Sadly it's been futbol break time, else i'd hit up one of our River Plate amigos about catching a match at El Monumental.

Great venue and city for a match, just saying while the Albiceleste would likely rip through us (w/ Messi... without? who knows... as said above, PY beat them in a Qualifier they needed to in earlier this year), the environment wouldn't exactly shock and awe our players when compared to Azteca.

But once past the creme of the CONMEBOL crop, it's more of the same for us. Hard fought battles against teams bent on unsettling us.

With how things stand we'd get, what, 7 AQ and 2 play-ins... with how things are, I'd expect us to be 1-2 in CONCACAF. Would hope for straight qualification, but expect one of the two +1 spots in a mega-confederation.

And there would be a staggering amount more of just sloppy, hard-fought (emphasis on "fought") matches.