US Proposes a Parallel Soccer World Cup to Russia 2018

The United States Football Federation, USSF, plans to organize a tournament, parallel to the FIFA World Cup, with the teams that didn't qualify for the tournament, the BBC reported.

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The United States lost its chance to make it to the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia after losing against Trinidad and Tobago, the first time in more than 30 years that the country doesn't qualify.

The idea by the USSF is still in a preliminary phase and it would still need to contact other state federations to design a structure for the tournament. 

The main obstacle to the plan is that the soccer governing body doesn't allow competitions during the same dates in which the FIFA World Cup takes place. According to BBC, the soccer governing body said it wouldn't get in the way as long as the USSF complies with the regulations of international soccer.

"This seems like an idea to make money, they think of it as a positive revenue stream," sports writer Michael Lewis told BBC Sport.

For Russia, some of the world's champions didn't make it to the top 32 teams. Italy, the Netherlands and Chile are among the major teams that didn't make it to the FIFA World Cup.

The five-time champions of the African Cup of Nations, Cameroon and Ivory Coast, are also out of the cup. Italy is out of the tournament for the first time since 1958, after losing the playoffs against Sweden.

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"I'm pretty sure that Italian footballers would prefer to go on vacation," Lewis said. "I also think the teams would play the inexperienced, which would certainly not help the development of the U.S. team."

Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, Paraguay, Scotland and Turkey could also be invited.

To the United States, this could benefit its candidacy to host the World Cup 2026 and will serve to balance the fact that it lost the US$ 12.5 million that FIFA gives to classified teams according to Forbes.