By Mark Baber
February 22 – The Copa Centenario, the proposed CONCACAF/CONMEBOL celebration tournament for the 100th birthday of South America’s confederation, is awaiting FIFA’s approval, but already plans are being put in place.
CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb (pictured) also said the format of the Gold Cup is being looked into. And in more news from the region, CONCACAF announced a new sponsorship deal has been signed with Miller Lite.
Webb said CONCACAF, and CONMEBOL hope FIFA will approve a joint Copa Centenario (Centenary Cup) for 2016: “We are continuing to explore, and, hopefully, we’ll be able to get permission from FIFA so we will be able to have this tournament, not only in 2016, but all teams will be able to have their full selection [of first-choice players].”
A proposed 16-nation tournament, to be played in the US was first revealed in October by CONMEBOL, but, as Inside World Football reported at the time, CONCACAF said that the announcement was premature. http://www.insideworldfootball.com/worldtournaments/82-copa-america/11513-2016-copa-america-in-the-united-states-is-not-confirmed-says-concacaf-bosses
The tournament is planned to include all 10 South American nations, the US, Mexico and four more CONCACAF nations.
Webb announced that this year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup will kick off July 7 with a double-header at the Rose Bowl featuring Mexico. The Gold Cup groups and full game schedule will be announced in mid-March.
According to Webb the future format of the Gold Cup and whether it should be changed from a two-year cycle to a four-year cycle, was being looked at by the new Gold Cup organising committee. However, he emphasised the great importance of the Gold Cup, CONCACAF’s flagship competition, in raising the revenues to allow the confederation to sustain itself.
On Thursday, MillerCoors and CONCACAF announced that Miller Lite, which has sponsored the Gold Cup since 2005, will be the global exclusive beer sponsor of the 2013 edition.
MillerCoors will also be the exclusive US sponsor of the CONCACAF Champions League for the 2013/14 and 2014/15 tournaments, in a deal put together by Traffic Sports, CONCACAF’s commercial agency.
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