Buenos Aires, Sep 26 (IANS): Argentinian soccer's highest authorities have announced that they are analyzing, along with the rest of the soccer federations in the Americas, the possibility of organizing a tournament between clubs from all over the continent.
According to the President of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) Luis Segura, an "outline" is being analyzed to "see if it will work", reports Xinhua.
Segura also said on Friday that the AFA's third vice president, television presenter and candidate for the AFA presidency, Macelo Tinelli is at the forefront of the topic.
"It has to be taken as a matter of desire. Analysis into whether it will work should be carried out. I understand that Tinelli was the interlocutor and I am pleased about that," said Segura via local radio station Rivadavia.
The project involves a tournament between clubs that includes every country and region in the American continent. It would replace the Copa Libertadores that is organized by the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) and the Concachampions tournament which is played in Central and North America and the Caribbean.
In principal, there would be a quota of ten spaces for Argentinian teams and five of these places would be reserved for the "big" teams (Boca, River, Racing, Independiente and San Lorenzo). Brazil would also have ten places and the U.S. and Canada's Major League Soccer would have 16 places. Mexico would have eight and three for Colombia and Chile. Uruguay would have two spaces and Paraguay would get one while the spaces available to other countries and regions is still being discussed, according to Segura.
The main attraction of such a tournament, apart from the sport itself, is the economic draw as it is estimated that the Americas "Champion League" would generate a total of 400 million U.S. dollars among the participating countries.
Even though it is still only a rough project, Argentina is taking it seriously and they see it as an opportunity to re-launch a soccer in the region that has not been marred by corruption, violent acts and clubs in debt.