>>149798985Because we are only about 8 countries in the federation and said federation president is a very silly (and corrupt) man, we sometimes invite other countries to the tournament. This edition in specific was special and CONCACAF countries were given slots to participate via some qualifying system that i forgot about, so we ended up having the US, Mexico, Panama, Canada, Costa Rica and Jamaica as well.
Why dont we just merge the federations, you say, after all the whole continent is called "America", no? Well because of money, thats about it really, the US has a stronghold in CONCACAF and manages it with an iron fist, merging with CONMEBOL would mean having to deal with other middle men who dont want to lose their spots either, and it would make qualifying a much more difficult task for the US and Mexico, who the earlier needs as they are the only proper, known rivalry the federation has and its what makes CONCACAF the most money besides mediocre tourneys where the two face each other.