Friday, January 13, 2017

Then there were 48....

It will rain cats and dogs. The Earth will crash and burn into the sun if a huge meteor doesn't strike it first. FIFA did it again. FIFA members voted to expand the number of teams in the world cup from 32 to 48 starting in 2026. Those greedy FIFA leaders. The first or the main reason to my belief is that FIFA expanded the number of participants in the world cup is due to money. That is no secret. But, please everyone brace oneself. No, not because I am about to agree with most US soccer writers and claim that FIFA has just destroyed and ruined the world cup. I will state right here and now, this might be a good thing FIFA has done. 
  
For starters the purpose of FIFA is to govern the sport of football worldwide. Their purpose is to serve all the nations not just a few. One of the goals for FIFA is to make football/soccer accessible to as many people as possible. There are 211 nations under FIFA, by increasing the number to 48 that means that around 25% of the football participating nations will be able to take part in the tournament. Let's address the cons first, the quality of play will be lower. That is true. But, I see that as an initial problem. In 1998 the number of teams participating in the summer spectacle increased from 24 to 32. In 1994 the United States was in the tournament due to the fact that they were the host. The increase of teams allowed for the United States to qualify for the trip to France in 1998. One could argue that the United States soccer team did not belong at all. They lost all three matches, easily the worst team among the 32 teams. I am not here to critique the quality of the United States. One doesn't have to be a fan to acknowledge the improvement and growth of the national team since then. In fact, if the United States team does not qualify for the 2018 world cup it will be seen as a huge failure. The point is that increasing the amount of teams will allow for other under developed footballing nations to have the opportunity to grow. How will other nations grow their national programs? Money. Each nation that makes it to the world cup is rewarded prize money. In 2014, the 16 nations that did not make the knockout stage were rewarded $8 million dollars. What FIFA is proposing is to award all participating members at least $5 million for making it to the tournament. That means that around 25% of the nations will be awarded. Nations like Jamaica, China, Panama, Honduras, and multiple nations from Africa and Asia would benefit from the money to improve their national soccer programs. Which is in fact the best part in all of this. When fans around the world sit to watch the world cup most of them know who to bet on. The Germanys, Spains, Brazils, Argentinas, Frances, and Italys of the world will be pretty safe bets on winning the whole thing. The format of 32 teams is great and I personally enjoy it. However, it does seem to be a bit redundant. Especially most of the third games in the group stage. Most of them are boring spectacles where the group is pretty much set and teams throw out their B team. I would enjoy more knockout rounds in the FIFA proposed 16 groups of 3 teams where two teams advance from each group. These single knockout matches raise the stake instantly compared to a third group game that feels forced.

These are still what ifs. A lot of what ifs. All FIFA did was vote on increasing the number of participating teams from 32 to 48. They now have the task of assigning the number of births each confederation will receive and the actual format of the tournament is still not set in place either. As I mentioned earlier this can benefit a lot of nations. However, FIFA still needs to be transparent in their dealings as well as enforce the national federations to be held accountable for the money they receive and how it will be used. There are other problems that FIFA still needs to take into consideration and work out befor the 2026 world cup. Yet, to all the dooms day and apocalyptic voices I say, hold on. Step back and lets see how FIFA moves on from here. Change is uncomfortable and scary at times, but it's FIFA. This can go in ANY direction. FIFA has a BILLION dollars in reserves, I see it as a benefit if that money is spent on more nations to improve their national footballing programs than having it sit in a Swiss bank account.     

 

Friday, January 6, 2017

College Bowls Don't Matter

The amount of bowl games for college football is ridiculous. This year alone there will have been over 40 bowl games played. Six of those bowl games are prestigious enough to win and truly savor the victory, but due to the college football playoffs there are only two bowl games that have any real significance. Based on the rotating of the six prestigious bowl games (Capitol One Orange Bowl, Chick-fil-A Peach bowl, PlayStation Fiesta Bowl, Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, Rose Bowl, and Allstate Sugar Bowl) two of these bowl games are host to the semi-final games for the CFP depending on the year. The NCAA has halted for any new bowl games starting up for the time being, till 2019 to be exact. The college football playoffs started in 2014, it was designed and intended to demonstrate to the entire nation which college football program is the best one in the country. And of course along with excitement for the fans and extra cash flow from sponsors to the executives. It is still too early to accurately predict what will be the result of the college playoff system, but a safe bet is that it will diminish the importance of bowl games. To be fair, the bowl games were already losing value do to the increase of more bowl games appearing left and right causing inflation of quality and importance. It's simple. 

Bowl games already feel pointless. This year the Rose Bowl was a consolation prize between Penn State and USC. It was quite the spectacle. Last second field goal to win the game. However, with the college playoffs in the picture all USC really won was a bowl game with history. While the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl victory earned the winning participant a spot in the college football playoff national championship. Making the Rose Bowl almost as meaningless as the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl this year. Now the Rose Bowl will have some more meaning reinstated when it will host the semi-final for the college playoffs. As one may catch on, these bowls have quite the Mickey Mouse names. Even the prestigious college bowls are not safe from being re-branded, I mean renamed. A person can search up the list of all the bowl games that are held and will catch on to the pattern in the naming of these football bowls. College football bowls do not matter any more. The College Football Playoffs has already pushed it to the back seat on this cash generating vehicle. However, these college bowls will not vanish any time soon. As long as these bowls continue to be named after corporations, the NCAA will gladly accept the money on behalf of the players. Due to their amateur status NCAA athletes are not allowed to receive any form of payment. I would like to clarify, the bowl games do not matter to most fans, the importance rest on the money being generated for a non-profit organization.