Expanded Gold Cup 2025

[gigi riva]

I still think the Gold Cup as a whole needs a major league overhaul . Its too predictable , same hosts , Usuallythe same outcomes , If I  am Jesse Marshe I am bringing a B squad

[Obinna]

23 minutes ago, gigi riva said:

I still think the Gold Cup as a whole needs a major league overhaul . Its too predictable , same hosts , Usuallythe same outcomes , If I  am Jesse Marshe I am bringing a B squad

This is why I don't mind guest teams. Saudi would be a good test and another team of similar or even better pedigree would really shake things up. I enjoyed having Qatar in the last few editions, just provided a different flavour than we are used to.

I don't think we bring a B squad though, guests or no guests, because it's our last tournament before the big dance, no?

And as predictable as things have been in the past, we will have a USA and Mexico team lead by new coaches, a Jamaica team which may have some serious new players, including the likes of Mason Greenwood, and then us with Sigur, maybe Jebbison after a thrilling loan at Watford. Then, Costa Rica will be a year older with their new generation of European talents coming into their own, not to mention a Panama which have proven to be competitive time and again. It could make for a really good tournament, especially with Saudi in there.

[jdheid]

10 hours ago, Macksam said:

With Nation's League now a main stay, CONCACAF is allowed to take liberties with this tournament IMO. 

Fair point.

[ahmedou]

Concacaf Gold Cup 2000 Champions 🏆

Concacaf Gold Cup Champions 2025 🙏

For the 25th anniversary 🎈

I really wish it's coming to Canada 🇨🇦

[Watchmen]

I'd like to see what happens with the "joint Copa" format before looking to turn the Gold Cup in to some sort of "World Cup Light".  If the joint format is dropped for 2028, then sure take a look at an expanded GC format every 4 years as well (maybe 1 expanded, 1 CONCACAF only).  Though I'd also like to see Canada actually win it again before we start acting like we're too good for it.

[xabuep2]

So far there is only speculation. It is said that the Gold Cup will be played on the West Coast because the 2025 FIFA World Club Championship will take place on the East Coast, I wonder if Toronto will be considered as a host for the 2025 Gold Cup.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

7 minutes ago, xabuep2 said:

So far there is only speculation. It is said that the Gold Cup will be played on the West Coast because the 2025 FIFA World Club Championship will take place on the East Coast, I wonder if Toronto will be considered as a host for the 2025 Gold Cup.

I wonder that as well.

There is speculation that they want to get all 2026 venues that they feasibly can tested.

As such, Guadalajara and Monterrey would host matches.

https://www.infobae.com/mexico/deportes/2024/08/07/estadio-de-chivas-y-de-monterrey-podrian-ser-sede-de-la-copa-oro-2025-esto-es-lo-que-sabemos/

The Azteca in Mexico City is undergoing major renovations.

As you mentioned, matches in the USA would not be on the East Coast to avoid conflict with the Club World Cup.

If trying to remain on the West Coast is the objective, geography would dictate that Vancouver would be a better Gold Cup host venue than Toronto.

However, Monterrey and Guadalajara can both host matches for Mexico's group, we can hope that Toronto and Vancouver could both host for Canada's group.

[MauditYvon]

In the last 13 Copa America editions (1993-2024), only 2021 was without guest nations. So let CONMEBOL keep their format of 12-16 hoping we get invited/qualify, and just make a Gold Cup, in different countries, every four years instead of two. And no guest nations please, it's insulting for other members of CONCACAF.

[Kent]

On 8/24/2024 at 1:51 AM, gigi riva said:

I still think the Gold Cup as a whole needs a major league overhaul . Its too predictable , same hosts , Usuallythe same outcomes , If I  am Jesse Marshe I am bringing a B squad

I don't see how you get to that conclusion from the observation that it's usually the same outcomes. The fact that it's always USA or Mexico that wins it (outside of 2000 of course) is exactly why we should bring an A squad. We need to break up the duopoly.

[Watchmen]

17 hours ago, xabuep2 said:

So far there is only speculation. It is said that the Gold Cup will be played on the West Coast because the 2025 FIFA World Club Championship will take place on the East Coast, I wonder if Toronto will be considered as a host for the 2025 Gold Cup.

Someone failed geography.

[Watchmen]

If the 2025 Gold Cup is indeed a "West Coast" event, the CSA should push hard for Vancouver to host some of the Canada games. It would be a prime opportunity to put Canada games back in this market leading up to the WC, with out the excuse of "jet lag from Europe". 

Plus, it's Vancouver's turn to get the "that's all that showed up for a GC game???" treatment.

[FC_Hali]

I would love to see Conmebol teams regularly merged into the tournament. Hosting games in the United States is a cash cow for Conmebol and Concacaf teams would really benefit from the enhanced competition since it’s very difficult to schedule friendlies with European teams. Seems like a win-win. 

[nolando]

50 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

If the 2025 Gold Cup is indeed a "West Coast" event, the CSA should push hard for Vancouver to host some of the Canada games. It would be a prime opportunity to put Canada games back in this market leading up to the WC, with out the excuse of "jet lag from Europe". 

Plus, it's Vancouver's turn to get the "that's all that showed up for a GC game???" treatment.

Exactly. We have always put a tonne of bums in seats. 

[Obinna]

I would like such integration also, but how to go about it may be tricky. For starters, if you fully open it up to South America, it may be a long time before a CONCACAF team wins it's own regional tournament. Such a reality means we probably won't see that.

I would be happy with a kind of system where the middle third of CONMEBOL gets invited, so that we have parody with the top CONCACAF teams. If we drop the bottom 4 teams from Gold Cup, which are often minnows, and replace them with say Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, and Chile, it definitely lifts the floor for the Gold Cup, making it more appealing and more marketable.

It also gives something realistic for the lesser south American teams (not Brazil, Argentina, etc.) to fight for. If you're Bolivia, you may just miss out on WCQ, but depending on how close you get, you could squeeze into the Gold Cup qualifying spot.

[Obinna]

USA, T&T, GUT, CHI

MEX, HON, Haiti, PER

CAN, JAM, ES, VEN

PAN, CRC, CUR, ECU

That's not the blockbuster that Copa America is, but it's a pretty solid field of opponents. It would help uplift the middle tier of the confederation, like El Salvador, Guatemala, etc. 

Teams like Cuba and Dominican would just have to work harder to qualify and given the teams involved, there would be a bigger carrot if they could manage to upset and find their way in.

[Mihairokov]

2 hours ago, Obinna said:

I would like such integration also, but how to go about it may be tricky. For starters, if you fully open it up to South America, it may be a long time before a CONCACAF team wins it's own regional tournament. Such a reality means we probably won't see that.

I wonder how people in "Asia" felt when Australia joined and started winning the Asian Cup and/or how they feel about Qatar being two-time defending champions of the Asian Cup. There's no shame in Brazil/Argentina winning Gold Cup - I think there would be if Paraguay and Bolivia were routinely winning it. It seems like the options are either have GC be mocked for being a farmers cup by including Guadeloupe or Suriname or have it be mocked for teams losing to sides that win World Cups. I know which one i'd prefer.

The whole point of inviting CONMEBOL teams into GC is so ARG/BRA can be cashcows for ticket sales and marketing (and maybe so MX/US can face stronger opponents as a side effect). Seems kind of redundant to form the partnership so only Ecuador and Peru can come north.

Like I said before, i'm fine with Concacaf inviting teams that raise the level of the tournament without trouncing every country they face, which is why inviting teams like Qatar/Saudi Arabia is fine, and why inviting New Zealand would be doubly-fine as they also need competitive matches outside of their confederation. 

If we use the 2023 format, a group goes from:
USA/JAM/T&T/SK&N to USA/JAM/T&T/New Zealand
or
PAN/CR/ES/MRT to PAN/CR/ES/Saudi Arabia

If this doubles as a way to get the non-FIFA teams out of GC then even better.

[Kent]

5 hours ago, Mihairokov said:

I wonder how people in "Asia" felt when Australia joined and started winning the Asian Cup and/or how they feel about Qatar being two-time defending champions of the Asian Cup. There's no shame in Brazil/Argentina winning Gold Cup - I think there would be if Paraguay and Bolivia were routinely winning it. It seems like the options are either have GC be mocked for being a farmers cup by including Guadeloupe or Suriname or have it be mocked for teams losing to sides that win World Cups. I know which one i'd prefer.

The whole point of inviting CONMEBOL teams into GC is so ARG/BRA can be cashcows for ticket sales and marketing (and maybe so MX/US can face stronger opponents as a side effect). Seems kind of redundant to form the partnership so only Ecuador and Peru can come north.

Like I said before, i'm fine with Concacaf inviting teams that raise the level of the tournament without trouncing every country they face, which is why inviting teams like Qatar/Saudi Arabia is fine, and why inviting New Zealand would be doubly-fine as they also need competitive matches outside of their confederation. 

If we use the 2023 format, a group goes from:
USA/JAM/T&T/SK&N to USA/JAM/T&T/New Zealand
or
PAN/CR/ES/MRT to PAN/CR/ES/Saudi Arabia

If this doubles as a way to get the non-FIFA teams out of GC then even better.

It's a confederation championship. When Australia moved confederations, they became part of AFC, so I imagine they are fine with Australia being AFC champions. Qatar is a country in Asia and they play in AFC, so I'm not sure what that part was about. If CONMEBOL and CONCACAF merged into one confederation, I would have no objection to Brazil and Argentina winning the confederation championship.

Edited August 29 by Kent
Spelling

[SpursFlu]

AFC would be the model. For their Club Championship they divide between east and west. If Concacaf and Conmebol were to merge. All club competitions would have to consider geography when creating a format

[Obinna]

2 hours ago, Mihairokov said:

I wonder how people in "Asia" felt when Australia joined and started winning the Asian Cup and/or how they feel about Qatar being two-time defending champions of the Asian Cup. There's no shame in Brazil/Argentina winning Gold Cup - I think there would be if Paraguay and Bolivia were routinely winning it. It seems like the options are either have GC be mocked for being a farmers cup by including Guadeloupe or Suriname or have it be mocked for teams losing to sides that win World Cups. I know which one i'd prefer.

The whole point of inviting CONMEBOL teams into GC is so ARG/BRA can be cashcows for ticket sales and marketing (and maybe so MX/US can face stronger opponents as a side effect). Seems kind of redundant to form the partnership so only Ecuador and Peru can come north.

Like I said before, i'm fine with Concacaf inviting teams that raise the level of the tournament without trouncing every country they face, which is why inviting teams like Qatar/Saudi Arabia is fine, and why inviting New Zealand would be doubly-fine as they also need competitive matches outside of their confederation. 

If we use the 2023 format, a group goes from:
USA/JAM/T&T/SK&N to USA/JAM/T&T/New Zealand
or
PAN/CR/ES/MRT to PAN/CR/ES/Saudi Arabia

If this doubles as a way to get the non-FIFA teams out of GC then even better.

As a counter point, the changing demographics in the USA are such that Brazil and Argentina needn't be involved to make a shit ton of money, I believe. Look at how many Venezuelans were in the stands in Texas, for example. Colombia arguably outdrew Argentina in Miami for the final. The Latino Diaspora in the USA is growing across the board, rapidly, so regardless of what nation you are talking about, I am certain you are going to get the "Mexico" effect to some degree.

Argentina and Brazil will always be at the top in terms of teams people want to see, but the rapidly changing demographics negate the need to bring them, would be the counter point.

Another thing to touch on - yes I think Argentina or Brazil winning the Gold Cup is not an issue if it happens on occassion, but these teams are so rich in talent there is a real possibility they could win in perpetuity, and that is issue, not a one-off victory. That would be problematic.

Consider how many Copa America titles do teams outside of the big 3 have? If Brazil-Argentina-Urguauy have a Copa America stranglehold, the same will happen in Gold Cup.

Finally, I would argue that USA and Mexico would get stern tests from whomever they'd face, be it Ecuador, Venezuela, Paraguay, teams of that standard. I was imagining something where you take teams finishing 4th to 8th in WCQ, then qualify them for Gold Cup, but better would be to just take the teams ranked 4th to 8th based on the FIFA rankings, which is clean and simple.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

If we win our November matches on aggregate we qualify for the Gold Cup.

If we lose our November matches on aggregate, we obviously won't play in the CNL "Final Four" in March.

Instead we will need to play in Gold Cup qualifying that month instead. This March 2025 qualifying will be known as the "Gold Cup Prelims"

https://www.concacaf.com/nations-league/news/concacaf-confirms-october-schedule-for-2024-25-concacaf-nations-league-group-stage-matches/

https://www.concacaf.com/nations-league/regulations/ (Page 25)

Our opponent would be one of the following:

Either one of the winners of these November matches:

PI1: Best 5th Place (League A) vs Best 2nd Place (League C) 

PI2: Next 5th Place (League A) vs Best 3rd Group Winner (League C) 

PI3: Best 6th Place (League A) vs Best 2nd Group Winner (League C) 

PI4: Next 6th Place (League A) vs Best 1st Group Winner (League C)

Or

The first or second best ranked second place team amongst the four League B groups

-----

If I understood everything correctly, this would strongly imply that the 2025 Gold Cup will have have 16 teams.

13 CONCACAF teams + 3 guest teams

The Group Stage would begin right away in the summer.

Edited September 19 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[Mihairokov]

Of the teams above that we would potentially get in Gold Cup qualifiers:

Likely...
5th/6th Place in League A: Guyana, Martinique, French Guiana, T&T, etc....
Best-ranked 2nd Place in League B: Curacao, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, etc..

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

Gold Cup host cities announced 

https://www.concacaf.com/gold-cup/article/concacaf-announces-host-cities-and-stadiums-for-2025-gold-cup/

Vancouver included!

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

I bumped the wrong thread!

Could a mod ( @jordan or @JamboAl ) merge this thread, with this thread:

https://www.canadiansoccernews.com/forums/topic/79015-gold-cup-2025/

and with this thread ⬇️

https://www.canadiansoccernews.com/forums/topic/80382-gold-cup-2025what-an-expanded-gold-cup-could-look-like/

because we somehow have 3 Gold Cup 2025 threads going on at the same time.

 

Edited September 25 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[ahmedou]

VANCOUVER AS ONE OFTHE HOST CITY!

GOLD CUP 2025 AT CANADA!

[archer21]

15 hours ago, ahmedou said:

VANCOUVER AS ONE OFTHE HOST CITY!

GOLD CUP 2025 AT CANADA!

Shame we couldn't get some matches in Toronto as well. I'd love to make the trip to Vancouver but I'm saving that for the World Cup in case I'm able to get tickets in Vancouver but not Toronto in 2026. Tough sell to the wife to go west 2 years in a row.