体坛英语新闻：Interview: CONCACAF president believes Gold Cup is getting better and better

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Xinhua) -- CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) Gold Cup finished the first round matches on group stage. Jeffrey Webb, president of the federation, told Xinhua he believed the tournament was getting better and better.

Gold Cup is the main regional soccer championship for North America, Central America and the Caribbean since 1991. The tournament had been developing through years. The 2011 event drew a total of 617,034 spectators - through 13 match dates - for an average of 47,464, which are both record best in tournaments held in the USA. 93,420 spectators is also the most recorded by any of the recent Continental Confederation Tournaments Finals.

"If you look at the history of our tournament, it's the 12th edition of the Gold Cup," said Webb. "The confederation and the tournament are getting better and better every year."

The first round saw enough surprising results as Mexico, the highest ranked team in the federation, lost the opening match to Panama and Canada was defeated by Martinique. It seemed that the distance between elite teams and average teams had become shorter.

"Our gold cup is played every two years, so more teams are emerging and they play more games," said Webb. Most continental football federations play their championships every four years, and the every-two-year schedule resulted in more diversity.

The development of more competitive teams was the result of good football promotion from CONCACAF. "We have great partners, including television partners and great sponsors, and United States is such a mature base," said Webb. United States, the biggest economy in the world, hosted all 12 Gold Cup in 22 years.

In Webb's opinion, every Gold Cup was memorable. "I don't believe any gold cup is better than the other gold cup," said him.

"Our members are very engaged, promoting national teams and having awesome community. For us, one of our big goals of gold cup is to become the better confederation championships in the world.

"Gold Cup itself did huge contribution to football promotion."

Development was also the focus of CONCACAF future plan. "Our focus right now is the development, the infrastructure and our coaching lessons," said Webb.

"We are focusing on grass roots, developing grass roots in all 41 countries in our confederation. For us it was really important to get the kids at young age, get the four or five year old kids in love with the game."

The 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament was scheduled from July 7th to July 28th in 13 cities throughout the United States.