League of the World

[TimEOBrien]

Welcome to the League of the World?.

This is a new (fantasy) league created in the near future (in an alternate universe...). The league is part Champions League, part World Cup and in it's initial form it has sent invitations to 20 clubs from eight national leagues (though both the number of clubs and number of leagues may expand in coming tournaments).

I will use this post to keep track of posts concepts:

Rules and Regulations

Groups Refs and (more) Rules

GROUP A:

Liverpool

Paris Saint-Germain

PSV

DC United

Real Madrid

GROUP B:

Barcelona

Marseille

Juventus

Deportivo Toluca

Bayern Munich

GROUP C:

Arsenal

Dortmund

Ajax

LA Galaxy

AC Milan

GROUP D:

Man U

Olympique Lyonnais

Inter Milan

Portland Timbers

Club América

ELIMINATION ROUND

[TimEOBrien]

Welcome,

It's 2015 and the world is being introduced to a new international club tournament: The League of the World (or 'Del Mondo' for short since the first ever tournament will wrap were the organizers originated the idea: Italy.)

For the first tournament, eight major club futbol leagues were selected and contacted to participate in the first ever iteration of this tournament. Teams were selected by the tournament selection committee by two criteria: Teams must be historically significant in their respective leagues and teams must have championship pedigree beyond their peers. There must be a minimum of two teams and a maximum of three. The selections were as follows:

Taking place in the fall every four years, this league follows standard FIFA rules, will have FIFA refs from member nations, uses goal line technology and is internationally broadcast (in the US by NBC and NBCSN).

The league does have some uniform specific rules, however.

1) In an effort to keep sponsorship prices up while reducing visual distractions/abominations they cause, all uniforms may only have one non-team related logo on their uniform. This logo may be located either near the breastbone of the jersey or in the center front of the jersey. No other location is acceptable. This means most teams will not have the makers mark of their kits located on their kit.

This singular logo is allowed to offset costs of international travel.

2) (In a somewhat contradictory rule) All uniforms will feature this patch on the right sleeve of all jerseys (and this version for the final four teams/games played in this year's host country, Italy):

3) All uniform sponsors must have ties to the country or (preferably) the hometown of each team. These 20 sponsors, along with FIFA and a few other companies based in the host country, will be the only sponsors shown on the ad boards during league play.

This ensures that the companies who profit from this league have stronger ties to each club and town than your random 'highest-bidder' type of sponsor.

4) All uniform designs must be devoid of template uniform cuts and patterns. This means the three stripe feature Adidas usually includes on all their kits is hereby banned and the modern slashes of color and piping featured by many companies are also banned.

This rule, and rule 5, are to insure classic/tradition/timeless designs inspired by team history and not manufacturer demands.

5) All uniform designs must be approved by the league committee.

[TimEOBrien]

Now knowing the rules and teams, let's get to the selection of the groups and group play rules:

Teams from the eight leagues/countries were placed in pots of five. Pot 1 contained the teams from England and Spain. Pot 2 contained teams from France and Germany. Pot 3 contained teams from Italy and the Netherlands. And Pot 4 contained teams from the US and Mexico.

Selected at random and placed into one of four different groups (A-D), the selection committee placed teams from Pot 1 in row 1, Pot 2 in row 2, Pot 3 in row 3 and Pot 4 in row 4. The remaining four teams were added to the last spot - row 5 - in each group. This insured similar travel demands for each group. The results are as follows:

Teams will play four games - two home games and two road games - against the other four teams in their group to decide the winners of said group.

For each and any group, games will be scheduled as follows (with H meaning home game and R meaning road game and W meaning the week of play):

Some teams will play two games per week but will have a minimum of 3 days between matches (one travel day, one rest day and one practice day).

In the group stage a loss is worth no points, a tie is worth one and a win is worth three. Tie breakers are as follows:

1) head to head;

2) total goal differential;

3) goals scored;

4) least amount of cards, where yellow counts as 1 and any red counts as 2;

5) drawing of lots.

Based on team uniform selections, the refs of this tournament will wear one of these four uniforms:

PRIMARY | CHANGE 1 | CHANGE 2 | CHANGE 3

Starting tomorrow, I will unveil team uniforms, beginning with Group D.

[lancealot]

Love the idea a the depth you have gone into, but. I believe there is already a club world cup or somthing similar

[TimEOBrien]

Love the idea a the depth you have gone into, but. I believe there is already a club world cup or somthing similar

This is different in that it's an invitational and one of the criteria is the historic level of the invited clubs. This is why a team like Chelsea was not invited, their club success is too recent.

As will be seen, Portland is an outlier, but there is a good reason for this as will be discussed when their unis are unveiled.

[BigRed618]

Not much of a "League of the World" if all the teams are just from NAmerica and Europe, is it?

[Kevin W.]

I'm definitely curious about why Portland was included over other MLS teams, seeing as though Portland hasn't even been to an MLS Cup final, much less won one.

I love the overall idea, though, and I can't wait to see the concepts.

[TimEOBrien]

Not much of a "League of the World" if all the teams are just from NAmerica and Europe, is it?

Expansion will almost certainly take place in 2019 (I don't know much about soccer in S. America, Asia, Africa or Oceania, so I just went with these 8 leagues to start).

I'm definitely curious about why Portland was included over other MLS teams, seeing as though Portland hasn't even been to an MLS Cup final, much less won one.

I love the overall idea, though, and I can't wait to see the concepts.

Remember, It is 2015...

[Raymie]

Very intriguing. My chief concern is that the main logo of the tournament is too complex and doesn't show up well at smaller sizes.

[UnclearInitial]

So is this basically the Coppa Super Clubs of the 80's, but with North America instead of the superior south America?

Also, no manufacturer logos is never going to happen.

[DelayedPenalty]

Your League of the World logo doesn't compare to the other league logos. It's very bland, and looks very clip arty. There's too much area of the ball that's unused and empty. Try simplifying the ball, maybe even get rid of the ball and do just the dark patches like the eredivisie logo.

[TimEOBrien]

TEAM: Club América

SPONSOR: Modelo

RELEVANT HISTORY: After winning the Primera División in '13 and '14, Captain Daniel Montenegro retired at the top. When hearing of América's inclusion in Del Mondo, there was mutual interest from Montenegro and the club to bring Montenegro out of retirement. A month before the tournament opened Montenegro signed a one year contract that has an option to join the front office during the second half of the contract.

Montenegro is on a much younger team than when he left, but his experience - combined with the improved play of keeper Hugo González - makes Club América one of the favorites to come out of North America.

UNIFORMS:

PRIMARY | CHANGE | SECOND CHANGE | KEEPER | KEEPER CHANGE

[Raymie]

Raymie's Pro Spanish Tip: Spanish accent marks go the other way (é, á, ú, etc.)

[TimEOBrien]

Raymie's Pro Spanish Tip: Spanish accent marks go the other way (é, á, ú, etc.)

Sorry, I forgot that option + 'e' was the Spanish accent and instead I did option + 'tilde'.

Fixed in the last post, the image is still wrong...

[Raymie]

When typing special characters is a must, I'd much rather have a Mac in front of me (which I do right now!).

[BigRed618]

Love it. The Aguilas happen to be my favorite team outside the US, and I think you nailed their style flawlessly. One question, though, what's the story behind the off-white and black kits? They look like throwbacks.

[TimEOBrien]

Love it. The Aguilas happen to be my favorite team outside the US, and I think you nailed their style flawlessly. One question, though, what's the story behind the off-white and black kits? They look like throwbacks.

It's based on a 1920s América kit and something they wore for their 95th anniversary season.

[TimEOBrien]

TEAM: Portland Timbers

SPONSOR: Nike

RELEVANT HISTORY: As will be seen when the Galaxy unis are revealed, a new rivalry has formed in the MLS between a foreign player stocked LA Galaxy (recently nicknamed 'Inter LA' by the press) and an almost entirely American club, the Portland Timbers. During the 2013 season, the Timbers were able to acquire (an under-performing) Clint Dempsey from the Premier League. Dempsey was attracted to this by the recent moves made by Galaxy to acquire more and more foreign born players.

Dempsey made an immediate impact on the Timbers and helped them sneak into the playoffs in 2013. Beating the Supporters' Shield winning Galaxy in the Conference Semifinals after a controversial late free kick, the Timbers went on to win their first MLS title against the Houston Dynamo behind the goalscoring and play-making talents of Dempsey.

In 2014, after gaining the help of goalkeeper Tim Howard, the Timbers went on to win the 2014 Supporters' Shield and the MLS Cup over the DC United.

In 2015, the Timbers won their third consecutive MLS Cup - a feat no other team has ever accomplished. This, combined with their nationwide support in the US (they've become a sensation and rallying cry for American soccer), convinced the selection committee to include the Timbers over the Houston Dynamo.

UNIFORMS:

PRIMARY | CHANGE | SECOND CHANGE | KEEPER | KEEPER CHANGE

[lancealot]

That doesn't look right having a giant swoosh in the middle

[marble21]

That doesn't look right having a giant swoosh in the middle

^This.

Also, I tend to find you force elements of a logo or flag into your concepts when often it isn't needed. In this case the chevrons. IMO the green and yellow on the collar/cuffs is enough to tie in the design with the logo.

Aside from this negativity - I really like the Club America concept and I think the 3rd kit is great.