In what you can call a twist of events, the football industry is supporting tennis. LA Liga has come out to help the new Davis Cup for the next four years. Although the news came as a shock to a lot of people, this deal is looking to do some good to the tennis fraternity.
LA Liga is looking to promote the Davis Cup across 200 countries across Africa, Europe, and Asia. The tournament will be aired in live league matches in October. The new Davis Cup is being led by a group organized by Barcelona’s former player Gerard Pique. If you are into sports betting with https://www.betway.com.ng/sport/soccer, we are sure you are going to follow the Davis Cup. If you still aren’t, we will tell you just why its so special.
The Davis Cup History: One to Be Proud Of
The Davis Cup was founded in 1900, and it is currently 119 years old. In 1981 the cup was traditionally structured around 16 nation world groups. The nations contested for the cup in four weekends.
However in 2019 things will be taking a whole new structure away from the old one. The Davis Cup has now switched to an 18 team tournament. The inaugural of this season’s competition will take place in Madrid.
These new changes were voted by 71% of the delegates who attended the ITF conference. These new changes aim to ensure that tennis stars participate in the event.
When will the new Davis Cup be held?
The sad news is that the new dates of the 2019 Davis Cup have not yet been announced. However, 24 teams will play in qualifying matches in one week of February. The games will be home or away matches, and the top 12 teams will qualify to the next round.
The inaugural competition, which will take place in Madrid, will be held from November 18 to November 24, 2019. The 12 qualifiers will be joined by the four semi-finalists in last year’s tournament. The new changes will see two wild cats joining the competition.
The teams will further be split into six-three group teams who will face each other in robin play. The teams will play each other in two doubles and a singles match. Consequently, the winners will proceed to the quatre finals.
What has been the role of Gerard Pique in the New Davis Cup?
In 2005 Gerard Pique approached the ITF with the idea to change the Davis Cup to something more similar to the World Cup. However, the negotiations were broken off after the ITF asked for 100 million dollars a year for the year. But that was not the end of Piques ideas because his project was picked up by Hiroshi Mikitani who is the president of Rakuten company situated in Japan.
The proposed changes have received a lot of critics with many believing that it will be hard having the finals in one place. However, it seems with the support of La Liga it appears that the new changes will take place.
