Let's Re-think The W.c. Qualifying

[usscouse]

WE'VE HAD A TON OF ARGUMENTS OF HOW MANY TEAMS AND FROM WHAT AREA'S OF THE GLOBE. SOME GOOD AND SOME IDIOTIC OR JUST PLAIN TROLLING.
SO TRY THIS...

What would be interesting is if we could re-think the whole world qualifying idea.

Try this, How about a seeding system based on international games played (Won’t that be fun) and run a
straight knockout competition say like the US Open Tennis or Wimbledon…???
Play 2 legs if you like over the qualifying period.
This would come down to the last 32 for the finals

If all goes to form then the top 32 seeded teams will end in the finals anyway.
What makes the knockout fun and sometime more interesting, is that it doesn’t always go to form and a “lessor” team or lower seeded team can enjoy a good run and become “Giant killers”
No intercontinenal squabling, every one gets to start even Brazil could go first round and who knows Bhutan might get drawn against Montserrat..!

In these days of world travel that shouldn’t be impossible.

*Imagine if you will; It’s the round of 64, the next set of winners go through to the Finals in Xanadu (You’re not going to get me there.!) Number 1 seed Brazil is playing number 8 USA. (Or put your own national team in here)

The first leg is at USA’s National soccer stadium with a crowd of 80,000 And Kellor pulls off another amazing game and the US comes away with a 2-1 win.
In Single elimination, that’s it, the US book their tickets to Xanadu.

For double elim. they would have to play in Rio against a slightly partisan crowd :) who hold parties outside the hotel all night FOR THE TEAMS ENTERTAINMENT.! And have the same crowd in the stadium knowing they have to have a win to go to the finals. A draw is as good as a loss for them…….
It gone into injury time, the 93rd minute Brazil are pressing again Roberto Carlos puts a perfect ball onto Rivaldos left foot. Rivaldo sees he's in the penalty area and.......So much for day dreaming, it sounds to simple.
D'ya think FIFA will go for it.
At least I wouldn’t have to try to remember who is a comebol and a concacaf .

[thurd]

i doubt some poor nations would ever be able to afford it, and can you imagine israel drawing a middle eatern country or the us drawing half of the teams in the world?

[usscouse]

Originally posted by thurd
i doubt some poor nations would ever be able to afford it, and can you imagine israel drawing a middle eatern country or the us drawing half of the teams in the world?
Yes, I thought of that but as I said I'm just putting out an idea.
Was that your only problem with it..?

Remember Montserrat went to Bhutan...:)

[thurd]

Originally posted by usscouse

Yes, I thought of that but as I said I'm just putting out an idea.
Was that your only problem with it..?

Remember Montserrat went to Bhutan...:)
another problem would be when to have the games.....i doubt any clubs would want this with all national team players being gone at once....but then again it could make it easier by designating those weeks as weeks without games or something

[jamisont]

so #1st seed team(Brazil) will play a team like #222th seed(Montserrat)?
it will be really great.

[thurd]

itd be one hell of a march madness

[Elninho]

Seed the top 32 in the FIFA rankings, and fill the rest of the brackets by random draw.

FIFA will have 205 members for the next World Cup cycle: 203 current members plus Afghanistan and East Timor.

All 32 seeds, and 19 other nations randomly taken from the top 100, get byes to the second round. All matchups are home-and-away, until 32 teams are left. Then we start the World Cup...

[Qdog]

Terry Baddoo had a similiar idea on one of his cnnsi.com articles. He suggests having mini-tournaments with the highest ranking 31 teams (excluding the host of the upcoming WC) hosting the qualifying tournaments (QT). Personally, I think it would be fine if they gave a slot to the federation champions, ensuring there is representation from around the world. That would place 6 to 8 teams in each QT. The QTs could be completed in 2 to 3 weeks. But it will never happen. There would be too much reduction of income for too many countries by the loss of home qualifiers. Plus it would make the FIFA standings meaningful, and we could never have that.

[GoHawks4]

Do it like theNHL play-offs. The Confederation Winners get the top seeds, and then the rest are just the highest ranking teams from the Global Qualifying.

[usscouse]

Originally posted by jamisont
so #1st seed team(Brazil) will play a team like #222th seed(Montserrat)?
it will be really great. All part of the fun (mayhem..!) So Brazil gets a little cocky and plays their U17 team for experience and gets their butts kicked...
Or what if they had to play in Bhutan...(Macarena in fur coats)it's only one leg. the lessor teams have a chance to see real football, they make enough money on one leg to afford the away game.
And the world sees a different team, hey get a bit of culture enjoy a true WC.

I'm liking those seeding ideas. Now for FIFA..:D

[ctruppi]

I think the current structure is good to a point. Guarantee Uefa 9 spots (the # of WCQ groups), Africa 5 spots, TFC 3 spots and so on. Where the change should come is the second tier teams from these groups. Have them play home nd home play-offs agianst other federations (a la Iran-Ireland and Australia-Uruguay). Maybe 4-6 in TFC playing 3 2nd place Uefa teams and the 3 best Arfrican runner-ups playing Uefa 2nd place etc. It's crazy to have Germany fighting Ukraine for that spot. Let them travel to Honduras or Liberia for that spot. This would guarantee each federation a minimum # spots and would also allow some intra-federation play-offs that would move towards the seeding principle.

[Maczebus]

Originally posted by ctruppi
I think the current structure is good to a point. Guarantee Uefa 9 spots (the # of WCQ groups), Africa 5 spots, TFC 3 spots and so on. Where the change should come is the second tier teams from these groups. Have them play home nd home play-offs agianst other federations (a la Iran-Ireland and Australia-Uruguay). Maybe 4-6 in TFC playing 3 2nd place Uefa teams and the 3 best Arfrican runner-ups playing Uefa 2nd place etc. It's crazy to have Germany fighting Ukraine for that spot. Let them travel to Honduras or Liberia for that spot. This would guarantee each federation a minimum # spots and would also allow some intra-federation play-offs that would move towards the seeding principle.

Of all the ways to improve the situation, this is actually worth doing!
It'll never happen of course...
And I'm not too sure about Africa getting a guaranteed 5 spots but the plan is in it's infancy yet!

[Elninho]

Possible tournament brackets based on top 32 seeded and random draw after that... enjoy!

(home-and-away series, higher seed listed first)

Brazil (1) - bye
Barbados - Guam
Slovakia - bye
Sri Lanka - British Virgin Islands
Ecuador (32) - bye
Lesotho - Gambia
Vanuatu - Montserrat
Mozambique - Eritrea
Yugoslavia (16) - bye
Central African Republic - Puerto Rico
Palestine - Brunei Darussalam
North Korea - Tonga
Cameroon (17) - bye
Scotland - bye
Switzerland - Burundi
Grenada - Nicaragua
England (8) - bye
Chad - Netherlands Antilles
Slovenia - bye
Congo DR - Sierra Leone
Romania (25) - bye
Bulgaria - Swaziland
Uganda - Aruba
Cote d'Ivoire - Seychelles
Colombia (9) - bye
Cambodia - Philippines
Venezuela - Botswana
Iran - Egypt
Japan (24) - bye
Jordan - Rwanda
Gabon - Papua New Guinea
South Africa - Bosnia-Herzegovina
Spain (4) - bye
Solomon Islands - Liechtenstein
India - Mauritius
Qatar - bye
Nigeria (29) - bye
Taiwan - Bhutan
New Zealand - Laos
Haiti - bye
Denmark (13) - bye
Iceland - Ghana
UAE - bye
Benin - San Marino
Sweden (20) - bye
Armenia - Guinea-Bissau
Liberia - Bahamas
Tajikistan - Bermuda
Germany (5) - bye
China - Faroe Islands
Singapore - Madagascar
Chile - bye
Russia (28) - bye
Malta - Niger
Kenya - Guinea
Indonesia - Samoa
Turkey (12) - bye
Estonia - Dominican Republic
Iraq - bye
Namibia - Djibouti
Czech Republic (21) - bye
Moldova - Andorra
Vietnam - Somalia
Jamaica - bye
Argentina (2) - bye
Guyana - Mongolia
Malawi - Afghanistan
Morocco - bye
Senegal (31) - bye
Austria - bye
Malaysia - Macao
Togo - Cuba
Netherlands (15) - bye
El Salvador - Sao Tome e Principe
Peru - St. Vincent & the Grenadines
Northern Ireland - bye
Paraguay (18) - bye
Lebanon - Yemen
Angola - Pakistan
Wales - Panama
Portugal (7) - bye
Cayman Islands - American Samoa
Zimbabwe - Surinam
Bahrain - Turkmenistan
Costa Rica (26) - bye
Cyprus - Bangladesh
Uzbekistan - Oman
Canada - Kuwait
Italy (10) - bye
Trinidad & Tobago - Belarus
Greece - Cape Verde Islands
Myanmar - Anguilla
Uruguay (23) - bye
Turks & Caicos Islands - East Timor
Australia - Burkina Faso
Macedonia - Nepal
France (3) - bye
Syria - bye
Thailand - US Virgin Islands
Zambia - Sudan
Honduras (30) - bye
Antigua & Barbuda - Equatorial Guinea
Tunisia - bye
Lithuania - Tahiti
Ireland (14) - bye
Albania - Dominica
Mali - Ethiopia
Israel - Mauritania
Belgium (19) - bye
Hungary - bye
Hong Kong - Cook Islands
Saudi Arabia - Kazakhstan
Mexico (6) - bye
Guatemala - Maldives
Georgia - bye
Latvia - Congo Republic
Croatia (27) - bye
Bolivia - St. Lucia
Finland - bye
Libya - Tanzania
USA (11) - bye
Algeria - Azerbaijan
Ukraine - bye
Luxembourg - Kyrgyzstan
South Korea (22) - bye
Poland - Belize
Fiji - St. Kitts & Nevis
Norway - bye


Oh, the anticipation... does Argentina play Guyana or Mongolia in the next round???

[writered21]

Will Fiji v. St. Kitt's and Nevis be on Fox Sports World?

[GoHawks4]

Dude, you must have so much time on your hands. Or maybe you have had this saved on a an old 5 1/2 inch floppy since Italia '90. "God, I can finally USE this!" *Blows off excess dust*

[Chicago76]

Originally posted by ctruppi
I think the current structure is good to a point. Guarantee Uefa 9 spots (the # of WCQ groups), Africa 5 spots, TFC 3 spots and so on. Where the change should come is the second tier teams from these groups. Have them play home nd home play-offs agianst other federations (a la Iran-Ireland and Australia-Uruguay). Maybe 4-6 in TFC playing 3 2nd place Uefa teams and the 3 best Arfrican runner-ups playing Uefa 2nd place etc. It's crazy to have Germany fighting Ukraine for that spot. Let them travel to Honduras or Liberia for that spot. This would guarantee each federation a minimum # spots and would also allow some intra-federation play-offs that would move towards the seeding principle.

I had thought about something similar to this as well. FIFA could guarantee fewer spots to the confederations and work some type of a global playoff for the last spots. I know there is a lot of fixture congestion as it is, but if scheduling ever becomes more uniform (big if I know), I wouldn't mind seeing a 16 team qualifying tournament months before the tournament for spots 29-32. If this would have been in place this world cup, the 16 teams could have included: the Europe 2nd place group teams, Australia, Iran, Honduras, Jamaica, Liberia, Uruguay, Colombia, etc. 4 groups of four. Group runners up play group winners for a spot in the last four of the tourney. All semifinalists are admitted to the WC. The four games necessary to determine the last 4 spots could be played within 2 weeks easily.

The tournament would serve multiple purposes:

1-it would help to end the squabble betweeen confederations over WC spots.

2-it would allow a country to host a mini-WC as a trial to possibly getting the real deal at a later point in time. The 16 team world qualifier could be held in a country like Australia, South Africa, or China.

[thepremierleague]

The winner of the African Nations Cup in 2006 will qualify for the WC.

Just thought I'd mention it.

[jamisont]

Originally posted by GoHawks4
Do it like theNHL play-offs. The Confederation Winners get the top seeds, and then the rest are just the highest ranking teams from the Global Qualifying.

Then Australia would get top seeds every single WC.

[Qdog]

Originally posted by jamisont


Then Australia would get top seeds every single WC.

I think GoHawks4 means for the qualifying tournament idea that was discussed. Right now New Zealand would get a first seed.

[ferx203]

WE'VE HAD A TON OF ARGUMENTS OF HOW MANY TEAMS AND FROM WHAT AREA'S OF THE GLOBE. SOME GOOD AND SOME IDIOTIC OR JUST PLAIN TROLLING.
SO TRY THIS...

What would be interesting is if we could re-think the whole world qualifying idea.

Try this, How about a seeding system based on international games played (Won’t that be fun) and run a
straight knockout competition say like the US Open Tennis or Wimbledon…???
Play 2 legs if you like over the qualifying period.
This would come down to the last 32 for the finals

If all goes to form then the top 32 seeded teams will end in the finals anyway.
What makes the knockout fun and sometime more interesting, is that it doesn’t always go to form and a “lessor” team or lower seeded team can enjoy a good run and become “Giant killers”
No intercontinenal squabling, every one gets to start even Brazil could go first round and who knows Bhutan might get drawn against Montserrat..!


- Nobody qualify directly.
- Preliminary Round. Rankings 52-205 play in 77 geographical couples home/away matches.
- First Round. 51 top teams (rankings 1-51) + 77 preliminary round winners = 128 teams, 64 couples, home/away matches. Best 64 rankings against worst 64.
- Second Round. 64 first round winners, 32 couples, home/away matches. Best 32 rankings against worst 32. Winners qualify to World Cup.

--------

ADVANTAGES

- 6 matchdays. Top teams only play 4 games.
- Preliminary Round Geographical. Reduce costs to little countries.
- Fair system. Every country have the same chances.
- Without direct qualification, FIFA can organize the World Cup in 1, 2, 3 or 4 hosts.