internationalsfan Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 With this now becoming increasingly likely what do we expect to see from it. Italy v Argentina (presumably to be billed as the 'Diego Maradona Cup' or something like it is likely to be a test to see what the appetite for this sort of thing is outside of the two countries playing in the fixture). Going on from that if we were to have a full 'Intercontinental Cup' how do we think it should be formatted. I've come up with two versions. Based on the 4 years cycle you could give teams ample opportunity to qualify by splitting qualification across the world cup and Euros/Copa America. 8 Team Tournament Seed 1: Winner European Championship Seed 2: Winner Copa America Seed 3: Runner Up European Championship Seed 4: Runner Up Copa America Seed 5: Highest Placing Euro Team Not Already Qualified From World Cup Seed 6: Highest Placing South American Team Not Already Qualified From World Cup Seed 7: Second Highest Placing Euro Team Not Already Qualified From World Cup Seed 8: Highest Placing South American Team Not Already Qualified If you were to hold this in 2021, had the Euros and Copa America been held last year as intended you'd get the following fixtures. It would also give you a relatively small number of matches to play with 7 total matches at neutral venues, or 14 if played home and away, so could easily be slotted into the calendar where friendlies would have been. MATCH 1: Italy v Colombia MATCH 2: Brazil v France MATCH 3: England v Uruguay MATCH 4: Argentina v Croatia MATCH 5: WINNER 1 V WINNER 2 MATCH 6: WINNER 3 V WINNER 4 MATCH 7: WINNER 5 V WINNER 6 Bigger Tournament Making the tournament bigger than that unsurprisingly causes a multitude of problems. With their being only 10 teams in Conmenbol and 55 Teams in UEFA allowing an even split of 8/8 gives basically guarantees a spot to the South American teams whilst only a handful of UEFA teams will be able to make it. On the other hand given 4 spots to Conmennbol and 12 to UEFA becomes close enough to a world cup knockout surrogate that FIFA might start having words about it, a similar issue arises if you have groups. Of course if FIFA continue to push ahead with the ludicrous 16 x 3 format at the next world cup then there's absolutely no reason not to do a 4 x 4 group to Quarter Final knockout in this tournament in the vein of the old World Cup - it could actually become bigger than the world cup as you're not including all the invited along to make it a more worldwide event teams. Actual Format Possibilities 4 x 4 Groups to Quarter Finals = 32 Matches - seems a lot to play in a top up tournament between two majors. 4 x 4 Groups to Semi Finals = 28 Matches = still seems quite a lot to play in a top up tournament. R16 Straight Knockout = 15 Matches = that seems more manageable but the distribution of places still seems an issue Working on UEFA having a 5.5 to 1 number of teams in the confederation that gives you an initial fair allocation of 11:2 with at 13.5:1.5 or 14:2 allocation based on entered teams from each association. Now it doesn't take a genius to work out that absolutely no South American FA is going to be on board with that at all. On the other hand an 8:8 split of qualifying times - while enough to make it a unique event as 4 of those South American teams would be lesser known ones outside the South American Big 4, it leaves you with the issue of only 8 European Teams qualifying - for this reason my suggestion is a 10:6 split Possible Qualifying System SEED 01 - EUROS WINNER SEED 02 - COPA WINNER SEED 03 - EURO RUNNER UP SEED 04 - COPA RUNNER UP SEED 05 - EURO SEMI FINALIST SEED 06 - COPA THIRD PLACE SEED 07 - EURO SEMI FINALIST 2 SEED 08 - COPA FOURTH PLACED SEED 09 - HIGHEST PLACED EURO TEAM WORD CUP NOT QUALIFIED SEED 10 - HIGHEST PLACED SOUTH AMERICAN TEAM WORLD CUP NOT QUALIFIED SEED 11 - HIGHEST PLACED EURO TEAM WORLD CUP NOT QUALIFIED SEED 12 - HIGHEST PLACED SOUTH AMERICAN TEAM WORLD CUP NOT QUALIFIED OR COPA IF ALL WORLD CUP TEAMS QUALIFIED SEED 13 - HIGHEST FINISHING NATIONS LEAGUE TEAM NOT QUALIFIED SEED 14 - HIGHEST FINISHING NATIONS LEAGUE TEAM NOT QUALIFIED SEED 15 - HIGHEST PLACED NATIONS LEAGUE TEAM NOT QUALIFIED SEED 16 - HIGHEST PLACED NATIONS LEAGUE TEAM NOT QUALIFIED Based on the 2018-2020 cycle had these tournaments been played at their right time and this tournament being in 2021 you get: 01 ITALY v 16 BELGIUM 08 PERU v 09 FRANCE 04 BRAZIL v 13 PORTUGAL 05 SPAIN v 12 PARAGUAY ------------------------------------------------------- 02 ARGENTINA v 15 SWITZERLAND 07 DENMARK v 10 URUGUAY 03 ENGLAND v 14 NETHERLANDS 06 COLOMBIA v 11 CROATIA To be honest having done this exercise I really want to see this tournament come to fruition now. Some good matches and potential matches in both the 8 version and 16 version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 Would there be any point in it. A team from either federation has won every world cup it would be like another world cup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoRoss Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 @internationalsfan I don't actually know this has already been discussed and will probably happen. I dont like it personally. I actually liked the confederations cup but this just seems like a money maker. I dont actually mind having more international tournaments. I actually like the nations league and I think it could potentially become the number one European competition because it is all the best teams playing each other but I dont like this idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
internationalsfan Posted July 14, 2021 Author Share Posted July 14, 2021 3 hours ago, Gunnersauraus said: Would there be any point in it. A team from either federation has won every world cup it would be like another world cup As the first ones in 2025, I'd imagine it's a throwing out the dummy over the 2026 world cup format with it having 48 teams, and likely many more from smaller confederations. 2 hours ago, Gunnersauraus said: @internationalsfan I don't actually know this has already been discussed and will probably happen. I dont like it personally. I actually liked the confederations cup but this just seems like a money maker. I dont actually mind having more international tournaments. I actually like the nations league and I think it could potentially become the number one European competition because it is all the best teams playing each other but I dont like this idea https://diggingsports.com/uefa-conmebol-may-hold-a-joint-competition-together-before-wc-2025/ The versions in the first are bigger versions than this, which would be max 4 teams but they're definitely edging towards something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Stan Posted July 14, 2021 Administrator Share Posted July 14, 2021 I think just the one-off game between Euros & Copa America winners is enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber RandoEFC+ Posted July 14, 2021 Subscriber Share Posted July 14, 2021 Footballers need some summers off. This sounds a lot like a second mini-World Cup so it's a big meh from me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
internationalsfan Posted July 14, 2021 Author Share Posted July 14, 2021 5 hours ago, RandoEFC said: Footballers need some summers off. This sounds a lot like a second mini-World Cup so it's a big meh from me. I wouldn't support it if the World Cup was kept at 32 Teams with the current qualification system. Do AFC and CAF really have 8 and 9 teams respectively that deserve to be at a World Cup, and even if they do 16 x 3 groups will make a mess of thing (why they're going for this when 12 x 4 with 4 best placed losers is available is beyond me). The reality is know so I think a tournament like this becomes necessary to have a serious international competition that remains about footballing quality, not as some sort of big joke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carnivore Chris Posted July 16, 2021 Share Posted July 16, 2021 They need to reduce the amount of international games if anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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