CONCACAF prez unlikely to sacrifice USA/Mexico rivalry for new World Cup qualifying format

There’s been a lot of talk about changing CONCACAF’s World Cup qualifying format lately. A few weeks ago it was reported that the the federation would review their format with new president, Victor Montagliani, going as far as calling it “archaic.”

Montagliani spoke with Grant Wahl on a multitude of topics regarding CONCACAF. He addressed the report and confirmed that he is indeed in favor of changing the format, but admits that he doesn’t want to disrupt the two big matches between the USA and Mexico we’re pretty much guaranteed every four years.

Two, he does support changing CONCACAF World Cup qualifying in the next cycle to give more games to smaller countries, but he says he doesn’t want to take away the big USA-Mexico qualifiers that already take place.

Also revealed in the talks was the fact that the new president has held informal talks with the head of CONMEBOL about more combined Copa America tournaments like the one held earlier this summer that was reportedly a hugely profitable event.

There were rumors back when the Copa Centenario was happening that the tournament would merge and happen every four years to rival the Euros, but nothing has emerged since those initial whispers.

It makes complete sense for another one to happen eventually with how well this summer’s event went down. It seems like just a matter of when not if.