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‘Tremendous amount of work’ - Concacaf president praises regional development
October 17, 2024
Concacaf president Victor Montagliani has commended the development of member associations, describing their effort as a 'tremendous amount of work'.
Montagliani said Concacaf and its 41 members have made significant advances in football on and off the field since he first took up the mantle in 2016.
The Canadian was first elected Concacaf president in 2016, before being unanimously re-elected last year for another four-year term.
"Our confederation has come a long way and it is really a testament to the work done by the federations. As you know, our confederation is only as good as the sum of its whole; the sum of our 41 federations and of the presidents," he said.
"We've done a tremendous amount of work and I've said this many times about Concacaf, when we first walked into the door eight years ago as this administration and a lot of the presidents that are now around, we were financially bankrupt, football bankrupt, we played no real football or meaningful football, and morally bankrupt."
Montagliani said one of the main reasons for the sport's growth in the region has been the introduction of the Concacaf Nations League.
He explained that the Nations League has provided a platform which has incentivised federations to develop their teams through recruiting new talents, developing the sport locally and investing in new facilities.
The Concacaf president also said players (such as those based in Europe) who would have otherwise been hesitant to represent countries in the region are now making the move to compete in the various competitions and have added to the competitiveness.
"I think the turnaround is really the Nations League," he said. "We have been using the Nations League to really push the envelope with respect to development and increasing the brand awareness of the federations.
"Now you have players who never would have thought of playing for a country that they play for now up until the Nations League, when all you could offer them before was one or two games every four years. That's not much of an international career," Montagliani said.
"Now a player playing in the Nations League can go to the Gold Cup, obviously World Cup Qualifying and they have more of a body of work to attach themselves to."
Montagliani stated that Concacaf can only continue to grow as long as its members are also growing, which is the idea behind Concacaf's philosophy of supporting its members in their development.
