Poll: Should the Copa America Be Expanded?

November 27th, 2008 | by: Daryl |

It’s official: Argentina will host Copa America 2011. Argentinian FA president Julio Grondona (who’s been in the job since 1979!) confirmed it yesterday.

Two interesting tidbits of information, that you might have know but I didn’t until today:

First of all, Copa America hosting decisions are a lot fairer than other tournaments. Apparently it’s all alphabetical. Venezuela 2007 ended the cycle, and Argentina begins it again with Bolivia up next. And if a country isn’t ready to host, they can postpone and claim it later. Nice.

Second, and slightly less sensible, the non-CONMEBOL invitees for Copa America 2011 will be… Mexico and Japan. Yes, that Japan! The one that’s actually quite far away from South America. As Chris says “What’s the point of calling it Copa America? They should just call it “People we like who can’t beat us”.”

Which brings up something that’s possibly been suggested before. Why not expand Copa America to include all CONCACAF teams? The Gold Cup is not a great tournament by any stretch of the imagination, and the 10 CONMEBOL teams always have to invite random teams (like Japan) to make up the numbers. So why not go all out and get everyone involved?

Two ways it could be done:

a) CONMEBOL could invite just the 10 Central American and North American nations for a 20 team tournament (four groups of five?) and leave the Caribbean nations out. Or..

b) the whole of CONCACAF (that’s 40 nations) could have a qualifying tournament to decide who gets to go.

I understand Copa America has a long and proud history, but that doesn’t mean the tournament shouldn’t be updated. An expanded and more inclusive tournament might be even better for all involved.

So, please take our poll and let us know what you think:

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Ted

They should invite six CONCACAF nations to make the field a nice round sixteen teams. It can be run exactly like the EURO 2008 was run. The six CONCACAF nations can be chosen either by selecting the top six in the FIFA rankings or some sort of qualifying tournament.
Bra

How it works now is fine, except that the two new spots should be played over by Mexico and Central America (and perhaps the Greater Antilles + T&T). And seeing how embarrassing the U.S. was last time, no, they should not be invited again.
http://spurs.theoffside.com Sam

What Ted said. We don’t want Aruba and Montserrat in there, but six teams from CONCACAF, even though they may get beaten badly, is a good idea.
Pseudinho

It can easily be done without adding any more FIFA dates to the calendar. The CONCACAF Gold Cup already has qualifying for The Gold Cup. I say the top six finishers from the Gold Cup get to go to the Copa America. So the 2009 Gold Cup would be not only a continental tournament of CONCACAF, but qualification for Copa America as the 2009 version is not a qualifier for the Confederations Cup like 2007 was. My proposal is a 16 team tournament and run it like the Euros.
shivam

i think it should be kept as is. since it’s a conmebol tourney, it should have a majority of conmebol teams and each confederation should have their own cup that a team from that confederation will win. the concacaf does the same thing with the gold cup.
https://wolves.theoffside.com/ Toby

Where did you get your poll code from….in an unrelated question.
http://seattle.theoffside.com Steve

scrap the gold cup and make it a truly regional tournament… that would go along with the heated cries of South Americans that people from the United States arent Americans since we are all AMERICANS… I guess not when it comes to futbol?
http://www.theoffside.com daryl

Toby,

I’ll email you the info.
Albo

What I think should be expanded is the qualifiers for WC, more than Copa America.
I find it ridiculous that in South America you have to beat teams like Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Colombia, etc. while USA and Mexico have to face teams like Jamaica, Panamá and Guatemala to get a ticket, which of course they always do.
Mexico and USA always have an easy ride to the World Cups when compared to other confederations..
Copa America means very little in that context.
Bra

Albo, you will rue the day you belittled mighty Panama! So how about a mixed qualification system for CONCACAF and CONMEBOL that would decide America’s representatives in the World Cup? It could be like the massive European qualification campaign, allowing more CONCACAF countries to take part. Have eight groups (though to be fair to CONCACAF, at least seed Mexico and the U.S.) with a crapload of teams.

In the short term, it would probably net the CONMEBOL some extra qualification spots, but it could at least have the effect of increasing the competitive level of CONCACAF after a while.
http://paraguay.worldcupblog.org Victor

I am in favor of integrating more North American teams in the Copa America. Mexico has been very quick to pick up on this opportunity to face tougher competition. The US a little less so, but I suspect they will eventually come around and look to participate with greater enthusiasm. I agree that six Concacaf teams should participate. To me, only Mexico, the US, Costa Rica and Honduras could compete in it well.

At some point, the Copa America became a little devalued; but I think this changed a little with the North American invitations as well as when Brazil and Argentina play to win it.

I would like more integration at the club level too. Mexican teams in the Copa Libertadores have participated with great enthusiasm, and have done very well. As a South American, I know we used to look down on Mexican football (some still do), but last year America eliminated both Flamengo and Santos! This year River was also eliminated from the Sudamericana by Chivas. A Mexican team could soon win either cup.

Honduran teams have been in the Sudamericana but I would also like to see US teams in either competition.
Pseudinho

I wouldn’t call England, Spain, and Argentina exactly weak competition. Those were the last three friendlies before the qualifying campaign got underway. I would have 4 groups of 6 with the top two teams in each group qualifying. But you would have a preliminary round for teams ranked 13-45 to see who the last 12 qualifiers are for the final group phase. With Brazil, Argentina, USA, and Mexico the seeded teams.

On a side note; The Gold Cup no longer invites teams from outside it’s confederation to the competition anymore. If you include 6 CONCACAF teams for Copa America you would still get the majority of the teams from CONMEBOL and most likely a CONMEBOL winner. Or you can still have the Gold Cup and Copa America as is and add a joint tournament, The Americas Cup, with the quarterfinalists from each Gold Cup and Copa America tournaments gaining qualification to The Americas Cup. To have a 16 team tournament. Since the Gold Cup is every odd year and Copa America is every 4 odd years, but the year after a WC you can have for example Gold Cup and Copa America 2011 be qualification to The Americas Cup 2012.