North American SuperLiga: a Proposal to Revamp

[twistedchinaman]

Okay, I know this is one tournament that hasn't received much love (hell, it seems like nobody knows how teams qualify for it, and I don't know how much stock teams from Mexico take it), but still...there is a potential for it, with proper expansion, and spreading into CONCACAF-wide.

If Asia has the AFC Cup, and Europe has the Europa League, and South America has the Copa Sudamericana...why not...


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0a/CONCACAF_logo.svg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6a/SuperLiga.png
THE CONCACAF SUPERLIGA?


Instead of just USA/Mexico, open it up to the rest of the continent. The idea is based on it being modeled after CONMEBOL's Copa Sudamericana, which is a two-legged knockout tournament. Thus, it not only gives more North and Central American and Caribbean teams more exposure to one another, it's more income for the teams (and possibly for the players, if the prizing structure is done right).

This will also not only replace the current SuperLiga (and making it more relevant), but could also replace the Copa Interclubes UNCAF in Central America, merging two tournaments into one.

So...say 16 teams qualify, half the slots for Central America, half for North America and the Caribbean, divided as follows:

- 3 USA (Teams finishing 2-4 in the regular season not qualified for CL)
- 3 Mexico (Best 3 overall teams not qualified for CL)
- 1 Canada (Nutrilite Canadian Championship runner-up)
- 1 Caribbean (4th place at the CFU Club Championship)

- 1 El Salvador (Best overall team not qualified for CL)
- 1 Panama (Best overall team not qualified for CL)
- 1 Guatemala (Best overall team not qualified for CL)
- 2 Costa Rica (Best 2 overall team not qualified for CL)
- 1 Honduras (Best overall team not qualified for CL)
- 1 Nicaragua (team that cannot qualify for the CL due to stadium)
- 1 Belize (team that cannot qualify for the CL due to stadium)

So this would mean these following teams qualify (based on the 2009-10 seasons):

USA: Houston, Chicago, Chivas
Mexico: Pachuca, Morelia, Puebla
Canada: Vancouver
Caribbean: Bayamon (PR)
El Salvador: C.D. Aguila
Panama: Atlético Chiriquí
Guatemala: Communicaciones
Costa Rica: Alajuelense, Herediano
Honduras: Real Espana
Nicaragaua: Real Esteli
Belize: Hankook Verdes

Of course, the lineup doesn't look all that hot, but hey...you gotta break a few eggs before the cake comes out. Still, teams will be randomly divided into two groups of 8 (country protection for the first round), say like this:

Pot 1: Houston, Chicago, Chivas, Pachuca, Morelia, Puebla, Alajuelense, Herediano
Pot 2: Vancouver, Bayamon, Agulia, Chiriqui, Commuicaciones, Real Espana, Real Esteli, Hankook Verdes

And drawn randomly (and just to save time, the whole tournament is drawn at the same time), a hypothetical first round could look like this:

Houston vs. Chiriqui
Alajuelense vs. Vancouver
Pachuca vs. Bayamon
Puebla vs. Hankook Verdes
Morelia vs. Real Esteli
Chivas vs. Communicaiones
Herediano vs. Real Espana
Chicago vs. Aguila

At maximum, it's four rounds, two legs each -- less than the Champions League winner, who could be looking at 14 games. It's less of a burden, but the exposure and the cash is still there. Maybe Pachuca will roll Bayamon over like a cigarillo, or Sector 8 isn't exactly all that thrilled about Aguila, but it's international club footy.

And the prizes? There could be many:

- A match with the Champions League winner (a Champions Cup...maybe the Christopher Columbus Shield?)
- A CONMEBOL tournament invite
- Recognition across the entire region

It's not a finished or polished idea, but anything is better than what they have right now...still, it makes the SuperLiga meaningful, and also merges it with the Copa Interclubes UNCAF.

[Stryker]

I like Superliga alot. I love the idea of playing Mexican Primera teams.
I suspect Superliga will suddenly get alot more love when we're actually competing in it.

[Keystone FC]

I kind of like the idea of a CONCACAF Superliga. Like you said if Asia has the AFC Cup and UEFA has the Europa League then why not a 2nd cup competition.
I would also have teams who didn't advance out of their groups of the CCL be in the CS.
I would be somewhat cautious about creating cups that may disrupt domestic, international, and invitational tournaments within the CONCACAF. We are getting to the point where soccer is being played 24/7/365 and another cup may take away from another tournament.

[twistedchinaman]

I kind of like the idea of a CONCACAF Superliga. Like you said if Asia has the AFC Cup and UEFA has the Europa League then why not a 2nd cup competition.
I would also have teams who didn't advance out of their groups of the CCL be in the CS.
I would be somewhat cautious about creating cups that may disrupt domestic, international, and invitational tournaments within the CONCACAF. We are getting to the point where soccer is being played 24/7/365 and another cup may take away from another tournament.

Most of the participants are selected from their own domestic seasons, and since most countries in CONCACAF does not have a domestic cup comp like the US Open Cup, the participants will have to be chosen from the seasons.

Plus, it combines the Copa Interclubes and the Superliga (someone mentioned it, and the Copa Interclubes come to mind...), so it does save some time for all clubs. And plus, if we get the CL losers in it...hmmm...

[twistedchinaman]

As suggested by Keystone -- another hypothetical model for the CONCACAF Superliga, with a suggestion with the CCL losers:

Round 1 - The sixteen teams qualified will play each other, creating 8 winners.
Round 2 - The eight losers from the CCL qualifying stage will then come in, and be drawn with one of the winners of Round 1.
Round 3 - The winners of Round 2 would then face off against one another, leaving four.
Round 4 - The third place finishers of the CCL Group Stages will be drawn with one of the four remaining winners.
Semifinal and Final - The four remaining teams face off.

= max. 12 games if the winner comes directly from Round 1, or from the CCL Qualifying Round.

For the Group Stage 3rd placers though, they will have played 14 games if they win. It's not a huge difference, so it could work.

So if we put this hypothetical tournament to the test (using the 2008-09 seasons as examples):

Qualifiers --
USA: Chicago, New England, Chivas
Mexico: San Luis, Santos Laguna, UANL
Canada: Vancouver
Caribbean: Tempete (Haiti)
El Salvador: FAS
Panama: Tauro
Guatemala: Xelaju
Costa Rica: Brujas, Pérez Zeledón
Honduras: Motagua
Nicaragaua: Real Esteli
Belize: Hankook Verdes

CCL Q-stage losers: San Francisco, Jalapa, New York, Olimpia, Herediano, L.A. Firpo, Liberia, TFC
CCL Group Stage 3rd placers: Houston, DC United, Saprissa, W Connection

Round 1 could look like this (picked winners in italic):

Chicago vs. Real Esteli
Perez Zeledon vs. Tauro
UANL vs. FAS
San Luis vs. Hankook Verdes
Chivas vs. Vancouver
New England vs.Tempete
Brujas vs. Xelaju
Santos Laguna vs. Motagua

So then Round 2...

Chicago vs. San Francisco
Tauro vs. Jalapa
UANL vs. New York Red Craps
San Luis vs. Olimpia
Vancouver vs. Herediano
Tempete vs. L.A. Firpo
Brujas vs. Liberia
Motagua vs. TFC

Round 3...

San Francisco vs. Tauro
UANL vs. San Luis
Herediano vs. L.A. Firpo
Brujas vs. TFC

Round 4...

Tauro vs. W Connection
San Luis vs. Saprissa
L.A. Firpo vs. DC United
Brujas vs. Houston

Semifinals...

Tauro vs. Saprissa
DC United vs. Brujas

Final: Brujas vs. Saprissa

Saprissa then would face Pachuca for the Christopher Columbus Shield before Pachuca departed for the Club World Cup. And if we got by Brujas...look at where we could have gone (that's assuming we would have made major improvements before making our foray into this tourney...still...a man can dream!)

[Huyton]

Personally, I'd prefer if the losers from the CONCACAF Champions League qualifying games got in. Last year, that would have been us or Puerto Rico, and this year, us or Guevara's club - Club Deportivo Motagua

Somehow, having the Nutrilite tournament played to eliminate a single team (or two, next year) seems like a lot of effort.

Then again, it might have made the final two games a bit more meaningful!

[Fort York Redcoat]

Superliga was what's wrong with NA soccer. More sizzle than steak. Throwing teams together who will sell tix but did or didn't do anything to deserve it.

The only way I'd want to see this is as a Eroupa league. A secondary tourney to CCL.

We're years away for the demand for this. The CCL needs far more attention before another tourney starts. I hope this happens one day, though.

[Oldtimer]

Dump the Superliga. Put everything into the CCL.

[Davenport]

The competition that is needed, whether it be league, cup or whatever is one that would persuade the best Canadian talent to stay here.
To make that happen there has to be good money, exposure and opportunity, and that will develop and nurture home grown talent which eventually will result in a better national team.
Playing against minnows from Honduras and Puerto Rico won't cut it, but get the top teams from S. America in and it will be a big success.

[Fort York Redcoat]

The competition that is needed, whether it be league, cup or whatever is one that would persuade the best Canadian talent to stay here.
To make that happen there has to be good money, exposure and opportunity, and that will develop and nurture home grown talent which eventually will result in a better national team.
Playing against minnows from Honduras and Puerto Rico won't cut it, but get the top teams from S. America in and it will be a big success.

Different. Continent. They don't let us play in their reindeer games.

I suggest you try enjoying watching something growing from nothing into something.

[T_Mizz]

Wow well done twisted, at first I couldn't decide whether this was an actual change being implemented by CONCACAF or just your idea. I was like man CONCACF way to get it done! The only reason I didn't get the same problem from the second scenario is because I read the thread. I'd be open to any of those, I don't believe the drop off would be all that great between CCL qualifiers and CS qualifiers.
PS you could have TFC being champions in the hypothetical situation?

[James17930]

This is a good idea, but might be too expensive for a lot of those smaller clubs, and many fans might not understand how this is different from the CCL.

My idea has always been to keep it between MLS and FMF, but expand it to 12 or 16 teams (3 groups of 4 with eight teams qualifying for semis, or 4 groups of 4 with the same thing).

And they absolutely have to start playing Superliga games in Mexico. It's ridiculous that they're all in MLS stadiums right now.

And oh yeah -- there shouldn't be anything to do with CONMEBOL -- keep club teams in their own regions.

[Fort York Redcoat]

This is a good idea, but might be too expensive for a lot of those smaller clubs, and many fans might not understand how this is different from the CCL.

My idea has always been to keep it between MLS and FMF, but expand it to 12 or 16 teams (3 groups of 4 with eight teams qualifying for semis, or 4 groups of 4 with the same thing).

And they absolutely have to start playing Superliga games in Mexico. It's ridiculous that they're all in MLS stadiums right now.

And oh yeah -- there shouldn't be anything to do with CONMEBOL -- keep club teams in their own regions.

James why so exclusive? We have an entire Conference to grow here. I'm glad MLS wasn't so exclusive or we wouldn''t be here (we are in a different country than the US here). Honduras has history in football in the region that easily rivals ours. Thy're to be excluded as well?

You start excluding IMO and the competition loses all validity to become an invitational.

[devioustrevor]

$$$$$

Some teams can't afford the travel. The only way this could work is if there were 4 Seeded teams that hosted a group so that until the knock-out stages they'd only have to pay for travel once.

[Azerban]

Different. Continent. They don't let us play in their reindeer games.


not strictly true, while they don't let us play, the mexicans play in their tournaments all the time

they really need to just combine CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, unite north american money and south american talent

of course then the US would actually have to play for their WC spot, and we can't have that...

[twistedchinaman]

Somehow, having the Nutrilite tournament played to eliminate a single team (or two, next year) seems like a lot of effort.

Then again, it might have made the final two games a bit more meaningful!

Exactly -- and besides, the NCC is bound to grow to include more teams sooner rather than later, so there'll be more teams playing for the CCL and (if implemented) the Superliga spot.

[twistedchinaman]

Wow well done twisted, at first I couldn't decide whether this was an actual change being implemented by CONCACAF or just your idea. I was like man CONCACF way to get it done! The only reason I didn't get the same problem from the second scenario is because I read the thread. I'd be open to any of those, I don't believe the drop off would be all that great between CCL qualifiers and CS qualifiers.
PS you could have TFC being champions in the hypothetical situation?

I tried...but I just couldn't see last year's team clawing by Brujas after what could have been a tough tie against Motagua.

[twistedchinaman]

$$$$$

Some teams can't afford the travel. The only way this could work is if there were 4 Seeded teams that hosted a group so that until the knock-out stages they'd only have to pay for travel once.

This is where CONCACAF and FIFA could help, but still...I can see your point about the tournament being hard to travel to. I mean right at the moment Haiti is still a mess -- there would be no way Tempete would be able to go anywhere to play their games. But hey...wouldn't that be one helluva story if they could.

But back to reality. If absolutely necessary, there are CONCACAF approved (or approvable) stadiums all around. Maybe not in a lot of the Caribbean, Belize or Nicaragua -- but there's stadiums in the US and Mexico that could help out.

I mean, take a look and what has been drawn:

Tempete in the Keystone example drew New England in the first round -- there's tons of options for Tempete's home leg: New York, Miami, Chicago, even Montreal. And since they "beat" New England, they could potentially keep at the place, to wait for L.A. Firpo.

Ah, the power of "home" sites!

[flatpicker]

Dump the Superliga. Put everything into the CCL.


I agree.

There is such a thing as too many tournaments.
I can understand it in Europe when there is far more money to be made.
But North Americans have simpler needs when it comes to this sport domestically.
CCL is enough.

[James17930]

James why so exclusive? We have an entire Conference to grow here. I'm glad MLS wasn't so exclusive or we wouldn''t be here (we are in a different country than the US here). Honduras has history in football in the region that easily rivals ours. Thy're to be excluded as well?

You start excluding IMO and the competition loses all validity to become an invitational.

I'm not against something like what Twisted proposed in the OP, I just think it's too soon.

I think in the short term, keeping it MLS/FMF is the way to go, and then maybe in 10 or 15 years or whatever, open it up.

We have to have the CCL take off first before adding another large pan-regional tournament.

[Azerban]

We have to have the CCL take off first before adding another large pan-regional tournament.

then it's on mls

it'll never take off, at least in real north america, when there are 4 mexican teams in the semis every year, and mls teams can't be expected to play league/cup/CCL and do it well with the pitifully small roster sizes we have now

everything is on mls, all the time

[James17930]

then it's on mls

it'll never take off, at least in real north america, when there are 4 mexican teams in the semis every year, and mls teams can't be expected to play league/cup/CCL and do it well with the pitifully small roster sizes we have now

everything is on mls, all the time

True.

It will be interesting to see what that MLS committee -- the one that was formed to study how to improve MLS's showing in the CCL -- comes up with.

I think one of their suggestions could be an expanded Superliga, which would give more MLS players the experience of playing in Mexico.

and if you expanded it to 6 or 8 teams from each country, I think you'd have fairly decent odds of it not being all Mex. semis. Of course, it could happen, but then if that's just how the competition goes, that's how it goes. Can't control everything.

[TFCUNITED]

I like the idea and I know this has been talked about on other soccer forums. It will become more realistic of actually happening once there is better infrastructure in the smaller countries and the CCL becomes bigger (exposure).

[twistedchinaman]

True.

It will be interesting to see what that MLS committee -- the one that was formed to study how to improve MLS's showing in the CCL -- comes up with.

I think one of their suggestions could be an expanded Superliga, which would give more MLS players the experience of playing in Mexico.

and if you expanded it to 6 or 8 teams from each country, I think you'd have fairly decent odds of it not being all Mex. semis. Of course, it could happen, but then if that's just how the competition goes, that's how it goes. Can't control everything.


Well if you want to expand the current Superliga, I still believe guest teans from other parts of CONCACAF is needed to grow the game throughout the region -- Saprissa is hardly a lightweight, ditto Marathon, Olimipa and Motagua.

If the Superliga goes to 6 teams from USA/Canada and Mexico, then 6 teams from other parts of CONCACAF should be invited as well.

[james]

right now i think the main focus should be on promoting the CCL. Once that gains more coverage and higer attendence i say maybe then add the Super Liga. But right now CCL has barely got noticed outside of a few teams getting good coverage.

[james]

and all tho i know the time and distance travel may prevent this from happening, but maybe one day something the should take a look at is combining a North and South american teams to compete in Champions League or Super Liga.

[Fort York Redcoat]

not strictly true, while they don't let us play, the mexicans play in their tournaments all the time

they really need to just combine CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, unite north american money and south american talent

of course then the US would actually have to play for their WC spot, and we can't have that...

I can't stand this line of thinking that an invitational is better for competition and therefore better in general for attendance. Not what you're saying Azer but this is the premise for the Superliga since it's inception:

Who gives a shit if everybody in the region's invited? Let the minnows suffer. Who gives a shit if Chivas (the big one) is shitting the bed this year? People want to see em. Throw them an "invite" to the tourney.

This hasn't even meant sellouts in past games of Superliga. I see no difference in principle creating a N/S American tournament. Except the cost for travel being increased substantially w/o the benefits of sellout crowds.

We don't have a league of our own..yet. In the meantime we represent our country and city the best we can and will do so in our region. We can grow the CCL and hopefully represent it in Club Championship.

The distance to SA is comparable to Europe for us anyway. Let's meet the best of SA with the best of Europe. My .02

[maninb]

Will never happen....period....

[DichioTFC]

Like the idea, but too soon IMO. Maybe 10-15 years down the line when the CCL becomes a major event for soccer fans. As it stands, we dont know about the best players in our hemisphere, and until the North American market gets educated about the value of the players in the Mexican, Brazilian and Argentine squads the North American public will be hard pressed to support a SuperLiga

[Fort York Redcoat]

Will never happen....period....

Never ever...question mark?

[Cashcleaner]

At the moment, I just don't think there are enough teams and domestic leagues that warrant both the SuperLiga and CCL. In places like Europe, there is, and that's why you see a multitude of multi-national tourneys going on. Here, though, it's a different matter altogether.

If I had my way, I'd drop Superliga in it's entirety and focus on improving the CCL, but I would agree that opening it up to the rest of the confederation and making it a conciliation tourney for those who don't make it into the CCL might be a good idea.

[twistedchinaman]

At the moment, I just don't think there are enough teams and domestic leagues that warrant both the SuperLiga and CCL. In places like Europe, there is, and that's why you see a multitude of multi-national tourneys going on. Here, though, it's a different matter altogether.

If I had my way, I'd drop Superliga in it's entirety and focus on improving the CCL, but I would agree that opening it up to the rest of the confederation and making it a consolation tourney for those who don't make it into the CCL might be a good idea.

Exactly. Shorter tourney, single knockout, set venues (no home-and-away) -- still gets exposure to international club footy, still not a bad thing.

[James17930]

I know that Superliga is unpopular with many on this board, but please hear me out on this modest proposal:

While I don't like the new playoff model proposed by the Don this past weekend, I understand it -- the more teams that are involved in a play-off hunt, the more 'meaningful games' there are for a larger percentage of the teams and their fan-bases, which of course spurs more interest in the league.

However, as has been remarked upon by many commentators, this tends to cheapen the regular season. So, the question then becomes: how can you give more teams 'meaningful games' while keeping a proper competitive balance to league games?

Enter Superliga.

Superliga only sucks right now because of its format: only 4 teams from each country, playing the whole thing in a month, and only having those games staged in the U.S., and only while the Mexican clubs are in preseason. Yes, as it stands, it's pointless. It should either be made relevant or done away with. Here's how to make it relevant:

Have 8 teams from MLS (teams 5 through 12 in the regular season standings) and 8 teams from Mexico, and do it up as a proper competition stretched throughout the year -- 4 groups of 4, home/away games in the group stage (yes, you need to have games in Mexico), top 2 in each group qualify for the knockout round, home/away ties all the way to the final etc. With 30-man rosters, something like this is finally feasible.

Make it a proper 'second tier' continental competition a la the Europa League; this would mean that every year you would have 4 MLS teams make the Champions League, 8 do Superliga, and then 6 (and eventually 8) not do anything. I think that strikes a good balance for deserving teams getting more competitions and more games while keeping the 'sanctity' of the MLS playoffs intact. It would also hopefully keep the Mexican clubs out of CONMEBOL competitions, somewhere they should not be anyway.

Thoughts?

[prizby]

the ordinary fan would not understand such a competition...average fans at a game = < 10,000

[James17930]

^Maybe at first, but if they market it properly it would grow.

And it couldn't be any worse than it is now.

[prizby]

Lonestar (a new tv show this year) was marketed just like any other new tv show on fox/cbs/abc/nbc, yet it was cancelled after 2 episodes because no one was watching it.

hell the mls cup had plenty of tv ads on espn, yet it had the lowest viewership ever

now why is this?

because NO REGULAR FOLKS HAD ANY INTEREST IN IT!

you can't justify expanding superliga when there is no DEMAND.

Start selling out superliga games than begin the discussion

expanding superliga right now is like saying hey we should offer nick garcia DP money

[Shway]

I get both aspects,

however i agree more with James, because they either make the tournament more meaningful, or literally just abolish the tournament on a whole.

There has to be some incentive to make regular season games more important than what they are...

[Azerban]

the ordinary fan would not understand such a competition...average fans at a game = < 10,000

that's pretty good actually

also it should be like 4 MLS, 4 FMF, 3 CA/Carib, 1 Canada

4 groups of 3, winner goes through

no bullshit, 6 games and it's done

[Shway]

that's pretty good actually

also it should be like 4 MLS, 4 FMF, 3 CA/Carib, 1 Canada

4 groups of 3, winner goes through

no bullshit, 6 games and it's done

3 FMF
3 MLS
1 Canada
1 Costa Rica
1 El Savador
1 Guatamela
1 Honduras
2 Caribbean
1 Panama
1 Nicaragua
1 Belize

4 groups of 4

[prizby]

how can you make this more meaningful when concacaf champions league is a joke as is...there are a lot of other problems other than superliga...this is just a cash grab, nothing else

[Shway]

cash should be the incentive....

i dont know what the prize money is for the champions league........
but superliga, the winner gets 1mill
...now thats something in CONCACAF

[Super]

cash should be the incentive....

i dont know what the prize money is for the champions league........
but superliga, the winner gets 1mill
...now thats something in CONCACAF

You may get a million bucks, but there's hardly any prestige in playing the superliga - or even winning the darn thing. I agree that CCL is a bit of a joke so far, but I think the general consensus is that it's a proper tournament, and is likely to become a major tournament in the future. The Superliga? Not so much. Probably up there with the Disney cup.

[James17930]

that's pretty good actually

also it should be like 4 MLS, 4 FMF, 3 CA/Carib, 1 Canada

4 groups of 3, winner goes through

no bullshit, 6 games and it's done

That's also a good idea -- the only thing I worry about there is that it would be too much like the CCL . . . there'd really be nothing to differentiate the two tournaments.

At least if it's just MLS vs. Mexico they can use that as a 'marketing angle'.

[James17930]

how can you make this more meaningful when concacaf champions league is a joke as is...there are a lot of other problems other than superliga...this is just a cash grab, nothing else

Everything takes time to build.

But as I said, you're right . . . if it stays the way it is.

Either do something with it or kill it; my preference would simply be that they try to do something with it.

[prizby]

Make it a proper 'second tier' continental competition a la the Europa League; this would mean that every year you would have 4 MLS teams make the Champions League, 8 do Superliga, and then 6 (and eventually 8) not do anything. I think that strikes a good balance for deserving teams getting more competitions and more games while keeping the 'sanctity' of the MLS playoffs intact. It would also hopefully keep the Mexican clubs out of CONMEBOL competitions, somewhere they should not be anyway.



That's also a good idea -- the only thing I worry about there is that it would be too much like the CCL . . . there'd really be nothing to differentiate the two tournaments.

At least if it's just MLS vs. Mexico they can use that as a 'marketing angle'.



Everything takes time to build.

But as I said, you're right . . . if it stays the way it is.

Either do something with it or kill it; my preference would simply be that they try to do something with it.

ok this is going to be tough to follow, but i will try...


point one: you say make the tournament a proper 'second tier' like Europa league...then you say you fear that it will be too much like CCL...i hate to break it to you, but Europa League is just like CL, but for crummier teams

you point out the CONMEBOL...which is a great point...because ultimately it is what will kill Superliga (I forgot there was interest to invite MLS team :p)

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1110/major-league-soccer/2010/10/31/2191479/report-copa-libertadores-could-accept-mls-teams-by-2012

[James17930]

Okay, not exactly like the Europa League -- I was just looking for an easy to understand comparison. I actually like the MLS v. Mex model.

But the reason I don't want Mexican teams in CONMEBOL is not because it would kill Superliga (although it would, you're right), but because if they do play in the various Copas and such, why even bother having confederations? Why not have the top African clubs playing in the UEFA CL, and such.

So, actually, that's another area where Superliga might help -- give the Mexican more stuff in CONCACAF to stick around for.

[prizby]

the 5, 6, 7 team (in aperatura) play in conmebol..1-4 play concacaf

[twistedchinaman]

http://www.redpatchboys.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=23027

[King Jeff]

that's pretty good actually

also it should be like 4 MLS, 4 FMF, 3 CA/Carib, 1 Canada

4 groups of 3, winner goes through

no bullshit, 6 games and it's done

Really like this idea.

[Fort York Redcoat]

I know that Superliga is unpopular with many on this board, but please hear me out on this modest proposal:

While I don't like the new playoff model proposed by the Don this past weekend, I understand it -- the more teams that are involved in a play-off hunt, the more 'meaningful games' there are for a larger percentage of the teams and their fan-bases, which of course spurs more interest in the league.

However, as has been remarked upon by many commentators, this tends to cheapen the regular season. So, the question then becomes: how can you give more teams 'meaningful games' while keeping a proper competitive balance to league games?

Enter Superliga.

Superliga only sucks right now because of its format: only 4 teams from each country, playing the whole thing in a month, and only having those games staged in the U.S., and only while the Mexican clubs are in preseason. Yes, as it stands, it's pointless. It should either be made relevant or done away with. Here's how to make it relevant:

Have 8 teams from MLS (teams 5 through 12 in the regular season standings) and 8 teams from Mexico, and do it up as a proper competition stretched throughout the year -- 4 groups of 4, home/away games in the group stage (yes, you need to have games in Mexico), top 2 in each group qualify for the knockout round, home/away ties all the way to the final etc. With 30-man rosters, something like this is finally feasible.

Make it a proper 'second tier' continental competition a la the Europa League; this would mean that every year you would have 4 MLS teams make the Champions League, 8 do Superliga, and then 6 (and eventually 8) not do anything. I think that strikes a good balance for deserving teams getting more competitions and more games while keeping the 'sanctity' of the MLS playoffs intact. It would also hopefully keep the Mexican clubs out of CONMEBOL competitions, somewhere they should not be anyway.

Thoughts?

Die Superliga, die.

This tournament is flirting with validity but the mere fact Mexican teams can choose not to participate negates it as a competition and makes it..an invitational!

I want this tournament to be our Europa league but not until the CCL is sold out.

Speaking of..how many of us would be more likely to watch the Club World Championship if it was a MLS team that qualified I wonder

[Oldtimer]

scrap the Superliga!!!!!!

There are too many tournaments already.
I'd rather put our efforts (and money) into the CCL.

[Fort York Redcoat]

scrap the Superliga!!!!!!

There are too many tournaments already.
I'd rather put our efforts (and money) into the CCL.

I was hoping the underscore was a link to an article reporting this was underway.:D