Forget the severe financial and psychological batterings suffered by those deprived of playing in the Club World Championship. Forget the logistical and organizational nightmares of waiting, waiting, waiting for draws to be announced and schedules to be confirmed.
CONCACAF may sell its soul to promoters disdainful of the Anglo market and force teams to play on narrow, blotched football fields, but at least its competitions get played and champions get crowned. Eventually.
The same cannot be said for FIFA. It has pulled the plug on the most lucrative and prestigious two weeks any MLS team could hope for.
“Let me get this straight,” Sigi Schmid might have said months ago. “FIFA is going to pay us to play Real Madrid in the Bernabeu Stadium?”
But this event, timely and intriguing as it might be, was overvalued from the start. A minimum of $2.7 million per team automatically values the CWC as more important than the World Cup, for which teams are guaranteed about $2 million if they qualify.
MLS teams face pitfalls galore once they venture beyond the domestic front, FIFA or no FIFA.
D.C. United just learned it will play in the CONCACAF Giants Cup final four in Los Angeles on a weekend sandwiched between two home midweek games.
For the Metros and Wizards, several proposed Merconorte Cup dates fall during the playoffs. That competition is organized by South American promoters.
“Let me get this straight,” Metros coach Octavio Zambrano might say. “We have to fly to Peru to play on a Wednesday night during the playoffs?”
Doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?
The saddest part is the Galaxy probably won’t play in the 2003 version of the CWC unless it re-qualifies through a CONCACAF maze.
But you can’t have one without the other.
by Soccer America senior editor Ridge Mahoney