The United States hosting a non-World Cup filled with nations that didn’t make the actual tournament is yet another embarrassing moment for US Soccer.
One really should credit the United States Soccer Federation for managing to further humiliate itself following the men’s national team pathetic and inexcusable inability to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. On Tuesday, reports emerged from FOX Sports and, later, from outlets such as Ives Galarcep of Goal.com the United States, Soccer United Marketing and FOX are investigating the possibility for a non-World Cup tournament that would take place next summer.
On paper, this isn’t a horrible idea. A competition featuring the US, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Chile, Ghana, Honduras and the Ivory Coast, among other nations that didn’t qualify for the real World Cup, could be entertaining, and it could generate revenue among customers who’d rather watch countries they support instead of following a World Cup that elicits no emotional responses.
US Soccer’s arrogance, ignorance and money-hungry ways are on full display at the notion of such a tournament. For starters, why would any player coming off a grueling European season even entertain the idea of playing in these meaningless games? Refer to the competition as the “Faux World Cup” or the “Alternative Facts World Cup” (h/t Men in Blazers podcast for the latter) all you want. Those games would be cash-grab friendlies and nothing more.
European clubs such as Real Madrid, Tottenham Hotspur, Juventus and the like have no reason whatsoever to release any players for this tournament made up on the fly and out of desperation to cover for US Soccer’s inadequacies. US Soccer could, theoretically, turn this into a competition that features younger would-be stars, but such tournaments already exist. Besides, the USMNT already fails to qualify for Olympic competitions at an alarming rate. Why shine a spotlight on that pitiful reality?
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The Major League Soccer season approaches its halfway point right around the Champions League Final, give or take a few weeks depending on the year. No MLS coach or team should contemplate letting any player at any level participate in this insult to international football, and the MLS campaign shouldn’t stop one weekend for the World Cup; that second point can be debated and discussed at a later time.
Local clubs around the US will be in action even as countries competing in the World Cup prepare for world football’s biggest tournament. Why not let those entities serve as alternatives for Americans looking to watch live soccer in-person? Oh, that’s right: Doing so would involve US Soccer working to promote smaller teams not in MLS. What a silly concept.
On Wednesday, a News.Com.Au piece referred to any fake tournament as “America’s embarrassing new World Cup low” and a “sad retaliation:”
"The idea that American football has sunk so low to be desperate enough to consider staging such a tournament has left football commentators in the USA red faced for their country’s standing on football’s global stage.The proposed tournament has been likened with American College basketball’s annual National Invitation Tournament (NIT) made up of the best teams that fail to qualify for the NCAA Division 1 tournament, popularly known as March Madness."
The financial aspect of the USMNT’s calamitous failure was also addressed:
"The disaster comes after Fox Sports in the United States paid an astonishing $500 million for the rights to host the 2018 and 2022 events.Before America’s Russia 2018 hopes were dashed, Fox Sports President Eric Shanks joked America failing to qualify for FIFA’s showpiece “would (be) like $200 million flushed down the toilet”."
Don’t let anybody convince you this contrived competition is about US Soccer moving forward or giving young potential internationals opportunities to represent their countries. It’s about money, pure and simple, and the hope is that any self-respecting footballing nation would tell US Soccer where to put such a tournament if asked to play in this sham.
Related Story: USMNT: Blow it up
Odds are this ridiculous exercise is much ado about nothing and little more than wishful thinking among individuals looking to further line their pockets. If, however, this disgraceful nightmare becomes reality, US Soccer supporters should examine how much they’re willing to place heads in sand and allow a federation that cares little about them to fleece them while pretending things didn’t go horribly wrong in 2017.