According to several people with knowledge of the discussions, after football's int'l governing body moved to expand the World Cup, "regional officials are considering creating a new tournament pitting the best national teams in the Americas against each other," according to Tariq Panja of BLOOMBERG. CONCACAF is "weighing holding its biennial national team competition every four years," said the people, who asked not to be identified as talks continue. The switch would "create room for a new quadrennial tournament that would also include teams from South America," perhaps as early as '20. Revamping the CONCACAF Gold Cup would bring it "into line" with other major regional competitions and the World Cup, which are played every four years. The global tournament this month was expanded to include 48 teams, up from 32, starting in '26. The success of last year's Copa America Centenario, which was billed as "a one-time event to mark the anniversary of South America's Copa America" but also included teams from elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere, prompted regional football officials to "consider a regular tournament." The new event would bring "traditional powers" Brazil and Argentina "face to face" with national teams from Mexico and the U.S., two of the region's "most lucrative broadcast and sponsorship markets." The Centenario, "put together hastily after nearly collapsing" following the arrests of several regional football leaders, generated roughly $400M, about four times what the Gold Cup raises, according to two of the sources. Euro 2016 had sales of more than $2B. Patrick Nally, the Englishman who pioneered sports sponsorship at FIFA, said that having more time to sell commercial rights would lead to "far higher revenues." Nally: "As a tournament it would be very strong commercially. The U.S. is a very commercially viable market with more broadcast and media opportunities as soccer is gathering more and more momentum there" (BLOOMBERG, 1/17).
