GRAND THEFT. Fifa takes S. America spot

[pololo]

1994

AFC:South Korea,Saudi Arabia
CAF:Cameroun,Nigeria,Morocco
OFC:none(Australia won twice against New Zealand and have to play against the runner up from the Concacaf region against Canada and won that game,then they have to play against the 4th South American team Argentina which they lost)
Conmebol:Argentina,Brazil,Bolivia,Colombia
Concacaf:USA,Mexico

AFC:Saudi Arabia reached the second round

CAF:Nigeria reached the second round

Conmebol:Argentina reached the second round while Brazil won the tournament

Concacaf:Both reached the second round.USA at home soil

AFC: 1/2
CAF: 1/3
Conmebol: 2/4
Concacaf: 2/2

[pololo]

1998

AFC:Iran,Saudi Arabia,South Korea
CAF:Cameroun,Nigeria,Marocco,Tunisia,South Africa
OFC:none(Australia won their Oceanian group and have to play against the 4th Asian team Iran,and lost)
Conmebol:Brazil,Argentina,Chile,Paraguay,Colombia
Concacaf:Mexico,USA,Jamaica

AFC: All failed

CAF: Nigeria reached the second round

Conmebol: Chile and Paraguay reached the second round Argentina at quarters and Brazil to the final

Concacaf: Mexico reached the second round

AFC: 0/3
CAF: 1/5
Conmebol: 4/5
Concacaf: 1/3

[fdp]

Somebody please put this thread out of its misery!

We now have the South Americans and the Euros taking personal jabs at one another, as Asia and Africa are laughing the heads off.

Sad Sad Sad.

[pololo]

2002

AFC:South Korea,Japan,China,Saudi Arabia
CAF:Nigeria,Cameroun,Senegal,Tunisia,South Africa
OFC: none(won the Oceania group but failed the playoffs against the 5th South American team Uruguay)
Conmebol:Brazil,Argentina,Paraguay,Ecuador,Uruguay
Concacaf:Mexico,USA,Costa Rica

AFC:Korea reached the semis at home soil while Japan reached the second round also at home soil.

CAF:Senegal reached the quarters

Conmebol:Paraguay reached the second round and Brazil won the tournament

Concacaf:USA beated Mexico in the final 16 and lost in the quarters.

AFC: 2/4
CAF: 1/5
Conmebol: 2/5
Concacaf: 2/3

[Alex_1]

Originally posted by futbol de primera
Somebody please put this thread out of its misery!

We now have the South Americans and the Euros taking personal jabs at one another, as Asia and Africa are laughing the heads off.

Sad Sad Sad.

No. Keep this open. It has not really deteriorated. Gone off topic at times yes, but there is good debate. There is nothing wrong with debate as long as it is civil, and points of views are actually being taken in.

[SoccerScout]

>>Somebody please put this thread out of its misery!
>>

hey 300 replies can't be wrong...this might have been my most actively replied thread.

[fdp]

Originally posted by Alex_1
No. Keep this open. It has not really deteriorated. Gone off topic at times yes, but there is good debate. There is nothing wrong with debate as long as it is civil, and points of views are actually being taken in.

Originally posted by SoccerScout
hey 300 replies can't be wrong...this might have been my most actively replied thread.

Then at least change the title of the thread to:

"South America vs Europe while Asia and Africa laugh their heads off."

[Knave]

I have no plans to shut down this thread at this time.

But, yes, let's try to play reasonably nice and keep things more or less on topic.

[deejay]

Well I'm willing to say that both UEFA and CONMEBOL deserve another half spot. I think nobody can be against that.

Right now UEFA's not hurting so bad because they've got that host spot (Germany) but wait until 2006.

[fdp]

It is FIFA giving too much to ASIA & AFRICA that pisses me off.

[RichardL]

I had a look at the FIFA ranking on fifa.com. I know the rankings are hardly perfect, but based on the top 64 nations, proportionally the 32 spots should be split

Europe 16.5 (based on top 32 - 17)
South America 3 (6)
Africa 5.5 (4)
Concacaf 3 (3)
Asia 3 (2)
Oceania 1 (0)

A bit harsh on South America who had 6 in the top 32, while Africa, Asia and Oceania gained by having more from 33-64. What does it prove? Not a lot, but it does perhaps show those who whinge that Europe has to many spots ought to consider that European teams do make up a large percentage of all the reasonable teams in the world. Only when you look at the rankings beyond 64th does the European dominance disappear.

[Soccerfever]

CONMEBOL should have had at least 4.5 spot because it's the most difficult confederation to qualify from.Teams like Venezuela,Peru and Bolivia have to play the likes of Brazil,Argentina,Colombia,Uruguay,Ecuador,Paraguay,Chile....which are not easy!

But what is even worst,is that Brazil,who became for their 5th time world champions will have to play the qualifiers in order to qualify next time!

Another thing,between 1982 and 1994,when the World Cup had 24 teams,there were 4 teams from CONMEBOL.Now the number of spots increased with 8 more teams,but CONMEBOL won't get a deserved 0.5 spot in 4 years time.

Plus if you consider the fact that CONMEBOL won more World Cups than UEFA....

But UEFA is not the problem,the problem is AFC!The co-hosts of the World Cup both reached the knock out stage while the other 2 failed miserably!And eventough I love CONCACAF,one single World Cup with 2 teams out of 3 reaching round 2 is not enough to earn a playoff spot.

OFC,well......
They got their spot after begging for it without proving anything,but since it's the World Cup,each confederation should have at least 1 representative.

CAF,well if you consider that African football is on the rise and the fact that Africa has 52 members association 5 spot is okay.

[Nobby]

Some posts on this thread advocate that merit alone should be the only measure for allocating spots to confederations. While I agree that it is a primary concern, I don't think it should the solitary factor. That is not realistic nor fair. Oceania has the issue of geographic isolation that has in the past been discounted. North America, Asia and Africa have large memberships. A significant reason why the finals were increased from 16 to 24 to 32 was to allow these teams greater participation.

I agree that South America got the short end of the stick this time around. I bet many in FIFA think that way too. I know its small consolation to know that CONMEBOL sending 40% of its membership to the next WC is still a far higher percentage than any other confederation. My guess is if three or more SA teams advance out of the group phase, the allocation amount will return to 4.5 next time. If they're not playing the USA, I'll be rooting for them.

[Screech]

Originally posted by El_Maestro
That hellhole Uruguay is a two time World Champ, which by the way kicked your sorry aussie arse in the qualifying stage.

1 game all is not exactly an arse kicking, and I am not surprised if Uruguay has won 2 world cups. Were either of those WCs actually held in Uruguay? If so then I would expect Uruguay to win because all of the opposition would have been attacked, spat on, threatened etc and thats before the games start. Almost as good as when Australia had to go to Iran and the supporters were shooting guns in the air when they scored.

[Screech]

Originally posted by nicodemus
Basically you're complaining that Australia actually has to go through what just about everyone has to go through when they travel. CONCACAF, CAF, CONMEBOL and certain parts of AFC are brutal on the road. That's just soccer friend. Go to Saprissa in Costa Rica and get pelted by some ice, coins, batteries and bags of piss. That's just about every CONCACAF road game whether Costa Rica, Honduras or wherever.

So we have to get penalised because we live in the "sane" part of the world?

[Screech]

Originally posted by deejay
Hey better check up on your stats when you say stuff.

Bolivia got to the '94 undefeated except for an away loss against Brazil

Ecuador came in second to make it to '02.

They both would have made it even if CONMEBOL had three spots. Argument doesn't wash.

'98 World Cup - Australia went undefeated through qualifying but missed out because they drew with Iran

[Screech]

Originally posted by DELBUCEO
Please don't be that stupid. Australian football sucks and the hellholes or the airports has nothing to do with it.

A month ago Penarol from Uruguay (which has won nothing in the local league nor in any recent Conmebol tournament) humiliated 6-1 to Wollongong Wolves, the actual champion of the national league and the champion of Oceania (I mean the #1). And the match was held in Australia (is that a hellhole too?)

You guys really suck, face it. You've got a free ticket to the WC just because a mixture of mercy and a economical issues. Period.

You have nothing to offer in a WC but laughs.


I agree the local comp is a joke, probably would be better if our better players were playing here instead of europe, but hey, those players can play come world cup time

[Jay510]

Originally posted by Screech
I agree the local comp is a joke, probably would be better if our better players were playing here instead of europe, but hey, those players can play come world cup time


let me tell you something screech and all you other Australian fans...........FIFA has never asked much of you.....all they wanted was for you to beat the 5th place team in CONMEBOL and the 4th in Asia the past 2 times.....either do it or stay home......you failed to do it, australia stinks on the road.....so thinking you deserve basically your own spot is unreasonable if you ask me


But Alas, you will make the cup, lose in the first round, but Australia football will have its justice........whatever

[Ben OZ]

What most Australians have taken issue at has not so much been taking on the 4th best Asians or 5th best South Americans (you're right, if we can't beat them we don't deserve to be in the WC Finals). Our main problem has been that we've played in a relatively easy competition yet it all boils down to 2 matches against opposition of an equal or better standard than us. Had we a qualification system where we regularly compete against competitive opposition and can afford to lose (or draw) at least 1 game and get through we'd be happy.

Take the scenario, FIFA decide to place the US, Canada and all the Caribbean nations (bar Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago) into it's own confederation with 0.5 spots. What you've got is 1 good side (US), 1 decent side (Canada), a few average sides and a whole lot of duds. The US cruise through their qualification without too many hitches (undefeated) yet come unstuck when they play off against Uruguay who are far and above any opposition the US have faced so far in their qualification series.

Most Australians would prefer us go through Asia where we would receive regular competitive matches and not have our WC aspirations rest on a 2 leg series as it has in the past.

[sammydog]

It's not just that we have only played easy games before the playoff, it is that the other nations due to their qualifying have had many quality games. In the past there is no way our team can be prepared for that.

As I have said many times, if FIFA had put us in with another confederations final round of qualifying I would have been happier than the direct qualification route. I think given this path we would have qualified as well. But, that is not to be and unfortunately will not happen anytime soon.

At least it now looks like we are going to be taken seriously and there are many countries (mainly from south america and UEFA) who want to play friendlies in the next year. Previously we couldn't get any one to even play a friendly.