Fair Qualifying? future World Cups

[Trussy in Oz]

A most interesting article I have read recently regarding the World Cup Qualifying was strangely enough by a Scotsman on BBC Scotland.
A bloke called Chick Young was suggesting that the fairest way for everyone to qualify would be to have a world qualifying competition, he said “it is a shrinking world and bigger and more efficient jet engines are making it even smaller”
Therefore the Fifa top 161 teams less the hoist [assuming the hoist is within the top 160]
Are divided into 32 groups of five the top team qualifies, before this of course there would be a competition to get to 160 teams.

Now the groups would be arranged according to FIFA rankings so if they were drawn today a sample of the groups would be…. ranking in brackets

Belgium [17]
Australia [49]
Cuba [81]
Barbados [113]
Hong Kong [145]

Brazil [1]
Morocco [33]
Venezuela [50]
Libya [82]
Singapore [114]

Lets face it it is not so hard to go around the world these days so why restrict qualifying to the geographical continents

[Bauser]

Lets face it it is not so hard to go around the world these days so why restrict qualifying to the geographical continents

Because of money.

[ursula]

And the fun of regional rivalries.

[Crowdie]

The confederations certainly need improvement.

Some options include:

* Combining the two Amercian continents
* Combining the AFC and OFC and making two confederations - one based on the countries to the west and one based on the countries to the east

That would give you:

Africa
The Americas
Europe
Asia Middle East
Asia Pacific

Any thoughts?

Crowdie

[JDotTheGod]

the whole idea of global qualifying is stupid...

its like a crappy world cup before the real one...

the only way i can see making it more fair would be to give a few more spots to the regions that deserve it...

[Andy TAUS]

the only way i can see making it more fair would be to give a few more spots to the regions that deserve it...JDotTheGod,

Yeah, like taking 1.5 spots off CONCACAF, 1.5 spots off AFC, 2.0 spots off CAF and that 0.5 spot off that giant OCEANIA !!!

Lets then give UEFA 4 more spots (18 in total) and 1.5 spots to CONMEBOL (6 in total).

It sure would promote football more through-out UEFA & CONMEBOL !!!!

:mad:

[cleazer]

I've always thought that if I were king of Fifa, I'd make global qualifying groups of 11-12 teams each, with the top 2 teams in each group qualifying. I know it'll never happen, but it would go a long way towards getting the best 32 teams on the planet.

My ideal scenario being impossible, I'd be happy with 28 teams qualifying for the World Cup, and having 12 teams fighting it out for the remaining 4 spots in some sort of mini-tournament. The eight losers would have nothing to complain about (so long as the tournament had enough matches to make it fair for all teams), and if you're not good enough to be one of those 12 teams, you have nothing to complain about anyway.

[Wowbagger]

I think it's fine that confederations outside of conmebol and uefa get more spots than they "deserve", but the uefa qualifications are getting ridiculous. Last time Holland didn't qualify, this time:
Holland, Romania and the Czechs fight for 1.5 spot
Denmark, Greece, Turkey and Ukraine fight for 1.5 spot
Portugal, Latvia and Russia fight for 1.5 spot
Sweden, Croatia, Hungary and Bulgaria fight for 1.5 spot
Belgium and Spain forght for 1.5 spot
England and Poland fight for 1.5 spot.

Look at Swedens group: Three Euro2004 players, and Hungary, fighting for 1.5 spot! And if the trend continues, with Sepp giving away more uefa spot to please his voters, soon we'll have groups with Italy, Germany and France fighting for a single spot.

[Caesar]

Holland didn't qualify because they screwed up, pure and simple. However, I agree to an extent. Usually, I think probably one European nation misses out due to bad luck/bad form that almost has a right to be there, and possibly a couple of others who are borderline.

I think the other continents are pretty well balanced - except perhaps CONMEBOL, I thought Uruguay disgraced themselves in K/J.

Oceania is different - I for one do not believe we deserve a full spot. However, I believe that they are deserving of a fairer qualification system than the current one.

[KanKeano's DefPosts]

Oceania is different - I for one do not believe we deserve a full spot. However, I believe that they are deserving of a fairer qualification system than the current one.

Personally I think that Oceania should have a spot in the current qualification system. Why shouldn't a Federation be represented at a World Cup?..even it isn't one of the strongest.

Who can argue that Asian federation deserve all their places after Saudi Arabia's performances last time. There has got to be some kind of balance. I'm sure Australia would have fared better.

The quote from 'Ursula' earlier about regional rivalries doesn't wash either as the qualifiers for the Federations own Tournaments take place at least every four years and there always place for them in 'friendlies'.

[saabrian]

I like the idea of a world qualifying group in theory. It would certainly reduce the whining that Europe gets "only" 50% of the qualifying spots. That way, whatever they or any other confederation got would be done on the pitch.

But as much as I like the idea in theory, it won't happen in reality. Not for some "politically correct" reasons but for financial reasons.

Some tiny or really poor countries have enough difficulty finding money to travel to other countries in their own continent. Guinea-Bissau, for example, has dropped out of African Cup and WC qualifiers because of money and that's only while traveling to Nigeria or Central African Republic. Make them travel to Australia, Canada and Nepal and forget it.

[Crowdie]

Who can argue that Asian federation deserve all their places after Saudi Arabia's performances last time.

Saudi Arabia is currently ranked 24th (according to the FIFA rankings) placing them seven places ahead of Russia who qualified for the Euro 2004 tournament. Go figure.

Crowdie

[Philip in London]

This is a complete non-starter. Jets aren't getting faster. It would cause immense player-fatigue. The burden would fall mainly on European clubs, which pay the wages of nearly all the top players, and on European FAs, who would have less marketable ties to sell. I would rather see all the European countries leave FIFA, than have this proposal go ahead.

[Caesar]

OK, quit whinging about not having enough places then :D

[ZeekLTK]

I think it's fine that confederations outside of conmebol and uefa get more spots than they "deserve", but the uefa qualifications are getting ridiculous. Last time Holland didn't qualify, this time:
Holland, Romania and the Czechs fight for 1.5 spot
Denmark, Greece, Turkey and Ukraine fight for 1.5 spot
Portugal, Latvia and Russia fight for 1.5 spot
Sweden, Croatia, Hungary and Bulgaria fight for 1.5 spot
Belgium and Spain forght for 1.5 spot
England and Poland fight for 1.5 spot.

Look at Swedens group: Three Euro2004 players, and Hungary, fighting for 1.5 spot! And if the trend continues, with Sepp giving away more uefa spot to please his voters, soon we'll have groups with Italy, Germany and France fighting for a single spot.

Maybe you guys should figure out a better way to qualify instead of just throwing everyone in groups and saying each group gets a certain number of spots. In CONCACAF we narrow down the field a lot before we even think about giving out World Cup bids. When Andorra and France start out at the exact same level, don't be surprised when upsets like Holland in '02 happen.

Europe doesn't deserve more than they have now, heck they probably should have less. Are Slovenia, Poland, Beligum, Russia, etc really that much better than Honduras, Iran, Australia, Morocco, etc? I don't think so. At the very least the lower European teams (in the 11-14 spots) should have to qualify through a playoff with other confederations (like #12 Europe vs #6 Asia, #13 Europe vs #5 CONCACAF, etc).

[Andy TAUS]

This is a complete non-starter. Jets aren't getting faster. It would cause immense player-fatigue. The burden would fall mainly on European clubs, which pay the wages of nearly all the top players, and on European FAs, who would have less marketable ties to sell. I would rather see all the European countries leave FIFA, than have this proposal go ahead.So Phil,

Player fatigue only happens in European Clubs' players, does it ?

Mate, if it's good enough for the poor plebs in other parts of the world to have to fly around the world to represent their country, then it has to be good enough for your selfish Euro-centric clubs & FA's.

Since these players are from other countries, they aren't allowed to play for your selfish clubs unless they are internationals. It's a price the clubs pay for signing up so many other countries' internationals. Simple solution, don't hire them but use your own local talent in your clubs for a change. I know it would do us all a favour here, where I come from.

I bet you would soon want to call your UEFA break-away group's competition WORLD something or other !

Typical up-yourself-so-far-that-you-are-inside-out selfish attitude, that.

Jeez.

:mad:

[Wowbagger]

I bet you would soon want to call your UEFA break-away group's competition WORLD something or other !

Isn't that exactly the case in Baseball and American Kevlararmor Rugby? Except with USA instead of Europe.

[Devil_78]

Look. Life itself is not fair. What hope for the World Cup! Personally, I think the balance is pretty much OK at the moment, meself. The only ways you could boost the World Cup for wider representation would be to make it 40 teams, or add in a second competition to run underneath it, with maybe the winner getting a pass through to an easier qualification round or something. Only an idea, not thought through, so no need to be derisory!

[Caesar]

Kevlararmor Rugby I'm going to remember that one.

[Auxodium]

A most interesting article I have read recently regarding the World Cup Qualifying was strangely enough by a Scotsman on BBC Scotland.
A bloke called Chick Young was suggesting that the fairest way for everyone to qualify would be to have a world qualifying competition, he said “it is a shrinking world and bigger and more efficient jet engines are making it even smaller”
Therefore the Fifa top 161 teams less the hoist [assuming the hoist is within the top 160]
Are divided into 32 groups of five the top team qualifies, before this of course there would be a competition to get to 160 teams.

Now the groups would be arranged according to FIFA rankings so if they were drawn today a sample of the groups would be…. ranking in brackets

Belgium [17]
Australia [49]
Cuba [81]
Barbados [113]
Hong Kong [145]

Brazil [1]
Morocco [33]
Venezuela [50]
Libya [82]
Singapore [114]

Lets face it it is not so hard to go around the world these days so why restrict qualifying to the geographical continents

Trussy i have made a thread about this ages ago! people condemned it and said it was too complicated. It was in the Oceanian thread i am sure. Nice idea but not feasable.