Concacaf General Secretary Moggio: “We are enhancing our competitions”

MIAMI, Florida – The final day of Soccerex 2020 began with Concacaf once again at the forefront in regards to the conversation on how organizations can best handle football competitions during the current Covid-19 pandemic.

Taking part in the “The Greatest Show On Earth” panel on Friday moderated by Trevor Watkins, Head of Sport, Pinsent Masons, was Concacaf General Secretary Philippe Moggio, who spoke about how the Confederation has approached its planning for the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup. Additional participants included Dato’ Windsor John General Secretary, Asian Football Confederation, and Court Jeske, Executive Vice President, USL. 

“Last year’s 2019 Gold Cup was a huge success. We had record crowds and a lot of great football stories. We had emerging teams like Haiti and Curacao helping us have a balance of competition at Concacaf. The Final was won by Mexico and viewed by over 8.5 million fans in our region, so our competition really is growing and there is a lot of anticipation for next year’s event,” said Moggio.

“We have had to make some adaptations given the pandemic. We have our Gold Cup draw on Monday and there are going to be a lot of changes around that. One of the changes is that we are having to do it remotely, but that provides certain benefits. We are going to bring together the head coaches of participating teams and they will be able to interact with media remotely, so it creates certain efficiencies and does away with some logistical challenges of bringing everyone together. There is innovation and I’m sure we will learn from that for future editions,” added Moggio.

Moggio also spoke to some of the enhancements made by Concacaf for next summer’s Gold Cup, notably the participation of current Asian Football Confederation (AFC) champion Qatar and the inclusion of the 12-team Prelims.

“Through our Memorandum of Understanding with the AFC, we have been able to invite AFC Champion Qatar to be a guest participant in the Gold Cup and there is certainly a lot of excitement around that. Since we lost the qualification windows in March and June of this year, which was how the rest of the teams were due to qualify for the Gold Cup, we brought that in to be part of the Gold Cup experience for next year. The week before the competition kicks off there will be a Preliminary Round where these teams are going to have a Gold Cup experience and be able to qualify into the group stage through that week of competition, so it’s a great enhancement as well to the competition,” said Moggio.

Moggio also expressed optimism that Concacaf will be able to host a Gold Cup in which teams will be able to compete in front of their fans.

“We’re planning for a full tournament with fans in stadiums next July, but if we have to adapt, we will. We’re monitoring, we’re learning and we’ll figure out where we are when we get to the competition, but we’ll have a lot of experience through what is happening in other leagues around the world in other sports to be able to implement the right protocols and execute this competition under new conditions,” said Moggio.

Meanwhile, for organizations like Concacaf, there is a challenge in learning how to manage things amid the ‘new normal’ during the pandemic. For Moggio and the Concacaf executive team, the safety of all is paramount.

“I think what is the new normal is how do we navigate going forward with the right protocols to ensure the safety of everyone involved, starting with the players and officials that are participating and ultimately with the fans. There are lessons and best practices that we can learn from each other. It is going to be constantly evolving and we have to know how to apply these protocols and learn how to live with the threat of this virus,” said Moggio.

Moggio also hailed the support of Concacaf’s partners during this difficult time, emphasizing that the pandemic has, in fact, made their relationships stronger.

“During this pandemic we have been very lucky to have a great set of partners like Univision, like Fox and on the sponsorship side like Scotiabank and Allstate. They have been incredibly supportive of what we have been going through and how we can together navigate through this time. I think the important thing is to be proactive in the conversation. Understanding that we are in this together has actually strengthened the relationship with all of our partners,” said Moggio.