By G. de Gourville From EverySport

The CONCACAF Gold Cup has been in existence since 1991 and since 1993 the tournament has been a joke around the world of Soccer for good reason. As a native of the North American continent myself, that is heartbreaking to me. Ever since the mid 1990’s I have longed for a better regional tournament but because of the powers that be and the $$$ in their heads, as a region we have had to suffer through the Gold Cup every 2 years. I have written my thoughts on this issue almost every 2 years on different platforms since the 2005 edition but with each passing edition hardly anything changes.

In the past they have changed some of the more glaring issues with the tournament. In 1993 the tournament became a joke with the invitation of guest teams and for over a decade the Gold Cup featured teams from South America, Asia and Africa. The invitation of guest teams not only made it blatant what the heads of CONCACAF thought about the talent level of teams in CONCACAF but it also made the possibility of having a non-CONCACAF nation as champion of our region a real possibility with the invitation of teams like Brazil. The invitation of teams paired with the horrible formatting of the tournament during those years resulted in many editions of the tournaments that are laughable when given a historical look.

Once the format was improved (only slightly) and guests were no longer invited, we were left with another inexcusable problem. The lack of Caribbean teams at the tournament. CONCACAF is a confederation with around 40 members, a fact which made the invitation of teams idiotic in the first place, but when you consider that there were more invited nations than Caribbean nations at the tournament it revealed a sad reality. The Caribbean makes up most of the member nations of CONCACAF but for the longest time received the least amount of spots in the region. The reasoning simply being that the Caribbean nations were sub-standard and not good enough to contribute quality to the tournament. However, in the past 30 years only 2 Central American nations have qualified for the FIFA World Cup. That total, is the same as the total amount of Caribbean nations to have qualified for the tournament in that period. The Caribbean have continuously gotten the short end of the stick despite punching above their weight.

It was not until this tournament that the Caribbean was given a chance to have more qualifiers than the Central American region. This of course coming after a long qualifying process for the Caribbean teams while the Central Americans play in a week long tournament for their qualification. The Caribbean did not manage to get a 5th team into the tournament but of the 4 that qualified all 4 made it to the Quarter Finals compared to 2 of the 5 Central American nations. All of these little issues would not matter of course if the tournament actually had a real qualifying tournament. The Caribbean qualifies via the Caribbean Cup, Central American nations via the UNCAF tournament and the North American nations of the USA, Mexico and Costa Rica…well they don’t go through qualifying. Their spots are simply guaranteed. Why? I’ve asked myself this question for a very long time. The USA technically gets into every Gold Cup as hosts and Mexico perhaps as the historical favorite but why Canada? They have 0 footballing pedigree and has done nothing to deserve a guaranteed spot at the tournament.

It really is not that hard a fix. Set up a qualification tournament not restricted by region and let the best teams qualify regardless of location. It’s the only fair way to do this. The only guaranteed spot should go to the host, which by the way should not be the USA every single time. The arguments have always been that no other nation in CONCACAF could generate the money the tournament would in the US and that the crowds will always be bigger in the US for even the least interesting matches. I personally say that the argument is bull. Almost every other nation (bar Canada) boasts fans of the sport that are more passionate than the fan bases here in the US and if given a tournament the fans will show up to support. Especially considering that many CONCACAF nations other than the US has hosted FIFA tournaments in recent history. Crowd sizes are big in the US but the numbers are a bit skewed. All the matches are double headers and the early match usually is played in front of a nearly empty stadium while the seats fill up for the Mexico or USA match that follows. Fans in other nations deserve a chance to show that they can support their confederation as well. It is beyond time to rotate the tournament around the ENTIRE confederation.

What baffles me is that folks around CONCACAF will argue that the region deserves more than 3.5 World Cup spots and with Costa Rica’s success at the World Cup last year they feel justified. Honestly though, how can the region expect to get more spots when all they showcase to the world is the giants of the region that already qualify for the World Cup. The USA and Mexico benefit the most from the Gold Cup hosting, the draw is set to make sure they avoid each other until the final, they don’t have to qualify for the tournament even and are arguably given the best of the refereeing decisions. Add that to the fact that they have the best resources and development in the region and have the best teams on paper and you give the rest of the confederation insurmountable odds to do the unthinkable. So why should FIFA or the rest of the world feel the needs to give the entire region extra spots at their showcase when CONCACAF won’t even help expose the talent that the region boasts? The coverage of the tournament is almost non-existent and the deck is stacked. So CONCACAF I ask you to really think about what the point is with the Gold Cup. Changes need to be made and now, the region is ready to breakout and should not be held back any longer.

For more on this story go to: http://everysport.sportsblog.com/posts/2871955/the-gold-cup-and-whats-wrong-with-it-.html