By Simon Fudge From GOAL

Seeking to be elected the first Canadian as CONCACAF president, Victor Montagliani’s agenda includes changes to Gold Cup and Champions League competitions.

VANCOUVER – Like any candidate running for office, Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) president Victor Montagliani is confident his campaign to become the new president of CONCACAF will be a successful one.

The 50-year-old will learn his fate next month when CONCACAF members convene for their latest Ordinary Congress in Mexico City. Montagliani is one of two candidates standing for the position, along with Bermuda’s Larry Mussenden.

Montagliani claims to have the support of the Central American associations and reportedly has the backing of CONCACAF’s two powerhouse members in Mexico and the United States. The key for the Vancouver native is landing enough votes from the Caribbean associations, if he is to become the first Canadian to be elected as CONCACAF president.

“The numbers dictate that you need to get a significant amount of the Caribbean votes because they do have 31 out of the 41 votes to cast,” Montagliani told Goal following last Thursday’s CSA press conference in downtown Vancouver. “Yet, I think one of the things that I’ve found on a lot of my travels to our members is that this election is not being seen as a Caribbean versus Central American versus North American thing. A lot of those walls that were put up in the past are gone. Now, each member is looking for a leader.

“In fact, you saw two weeks ago, four Caribbean countries – Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Cuba – announce their support of me, which is something you might not have seen in the past. I know I have support of others as well. I’ve put out my manifesto, if you want to call it that, in terms of the ‘ONE CONCACAF’ vision, and we’ll see what happens on May 12.”

Beyond the enormous task of restoring the confederation’s reputation that has been severely damaged by the ongoing FIFA corruption scandal, Montagliani’s ‘FOOTBALL FIRST’ ethos includes ways to improve and raise the profile of CONCACAF competitions like the Gold Cup.

“By increasing it to 16 teams from 12, you will have an easier opportunity to spread the wealth a little bit and to develop other markets. It’s not always about just revenue generation, you’ve got to promulgate your product a little bit, and by doing that, you’ve got to develop other markets. The majority of it will be hosted in the U.S., just for obvious reasons, but we (Canada) hosted a doubleheader for the last Gold Cup version in Toronto.

“Why not have a doubleheader in the Caribbean? Why not have a doubleheader in Central America or in Mexico? We need to treat the product not just as a revenue generator, but as an opportunity to grow other markets, which will bode well for the future of the region.”

The Gold Cup may not be the only competition set for changes in the near future. Montagliani confirmed that discussions to move the CONCACAF Champions League to an annual calendar have taken place, as well as other plans to help the development of the confederation’s clubs.

“I think we need to really have a hard look at that, in terms of what it looks like, from a scheduling standpoint,” Montagliani said of potential CONCACAF Champions League changes. “I’ve talked to some of the clubs, mainly in Mexico and the U.S., about that.

“We also need to look at how we bring other clubs in play from other parts of CONCACAF. Is there a requirement maybe to have what we see in Europe, where we have two levels of club competitions like the Champions League and Europa League? Is there an opportunity to do that in CONCACAF, where you are developing other clubs, who hopefully can play in the Champions League down the road? Those are the things we need to look at, in terms of analysis.”

For more on this story go to: http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1616/concacaf/2016/04/18/22518142/montagliani-confident-ahead-of-concacaf-election