The South American football federation has only 10 members. They invite different countries to make the format workable. Qatar is also participating this year. In 2016 there were 6 countries from outside SA that participated.
CONCACAF is held back by all those little Caribbean confederations who hold an equal vote to Mexico and the U.S. I wouldn't be surprised if Mexico, especially, looks to join up with the Copa America instead of a milquetoast Gold Cup without a berth to the Confederations Cup, but neither wants to really give up the free (Well...usually) pass to the World Cup CONCACAF gives them and fully join South America. Could you imagine us trying to qualify for the World Cup by combining the Americas? We'd go once every other decade.
Had to listen to some high up cats in US soccer today. They think they’re going to make huge strides with the play model, really going to push it in inner cities, and somehow make it where Europe leagues have to pay us soccer if they sign an American. Also seem pretty worried about how other countries are closing the gap in women’s soccer.
And now we know why the US can't seem to make any progress. These [uck fay]ing morons are still in charge.
How can US Soccer make European professional teams pay US Soccer for a player? Is US Soccer claiming the rights of every soccer player in the USA now? I bet the SCOTUS will have a lot to say about that. Unless I am misreading what 53 is saying was said.
I'm not sure exactly what the context was for that statement, but there has been a controversy recently over training compensation (and solidarity payments, which are very similar and I haven't delved into the nuance of which is which). In Europe, training compensation is standard operating procedure. Some percentage of a player's contract/fee goes to the clubs that trained him as a youth player. This applies to first contracts and any transfers under the age of 23. If a European club signs a European player under 23, even if they sign them on a free, they pay the youth club some amount of money. In the past, MLS academies have not demanded training compensation when transferring players to Europe, probably in large part because they don't want to pay training compensation when they poach players from non-MLS pay-to-play academies. There was actually a big (well, niche big) court case about this over the Yedlin transfer to Spurs, because his youth club wanted compensation but Spurs had been told they didn't owe anything. What's happening right now is that we're trying to come a little bit closer to Europe in our training model, by reducing pay-to-play whenever possible and by participating in training compensation.
US Soccer is in bed with FIFA. This kind of stuff is to be expected. Sad that greed and power ruins something as grand as the World Cup.
Look no further than ticket prices for CONCACAF events and USMNT friendlies. It's a bunch of corrupt dickheads that want to line their own pockets.
The whole system is full of laughably arrogant people. My son's travel team one year got a coach from Denmark for a season and the guy who brought him in (the club director and one of the parents) became his assistant. It worked at first, but the guy couldn't help himself and began barking out orders during some tournament. The guy from Denmark, who had an A level UEFA coaching license, turned to him, told him he didn't know what he was taking about and to STFU. Was beautiful.
That's great. My soccer coaching highlight was when my son was 4 and my team "beat" a guy who played semi-pro in Spain or Portugal like 10-0. Granted, I had two ringers from Guatemala on my team that were heads, shoulders, waist, and knees better than every kid out there, but I'm still going to ascribe it to the coaching.
Just curious. Not far from you. Son played for Aris and Nusa. We played vs Stones River quite a bit, then a new team, mainly Hispanic, called IFC came about from Antioch area. They toyed with us.
No, he played for Eagle Express out of Mt. Juliet. We're still working on his team this year, but TSC did offer him a spot, so we'll see.
