Any Consensus FIFA adding/removing qualifier slots?

[tomwilhelm]

That may be the longest post I've ever seen on BigSoccer.

[mattteo]

Best allocation:

14 UEFA
5 CONMEBOL (with Mexico joining)
4 CAF
1 host

screw the others

[voros]

Ghana shouldn't have even made it out of the group stages. And you dare talk about an favoritism in past world cups? LOL. FIFA isn't known to take responsibility for such foolishness anyway, and so we are left with the fact that Asia has been better than Africa in the last two world cups. End of story, afrocentric crap notwithstanding.
And the fact that in 2002 Asia has home field advantage afor two of their teams?

Away from home, Asian teams have been uncompetitive at best in the recent World Cups. Yes having Australia helps as I think they are now the best Asian team, but I think there's a good argument that Asia simply has too many spots (but also a good argument that they don't).

If you have a world cup selection whose only goal is to have the best 32 teams in the World, I don't think it's as good a tournament where you balance the quality of the confederations with the international nature of the event. The 20th best team in Europe might be one of the best 32 teams in the World, but they're still number 20 in Europe. They _get_ their chance to compete against the top teams in the World in meaningful games. Sometimes those are hard to come by for other countries not from South America.

[Andy TAUS]

Best allocation:

14 UEFA
5 CONMEBOL (with Mexico joining)
4 CAF
1 host

screw the othersGod, you got to love the idiots of the world. :rolleyes:

[Auxodium]

God, you got to love the idiots of the world. :rolleyes:

well it 'makes sense' doesn't it. aftre all it is the WORLD cup. lol UEFA have their own national comp... i believe it is Euro 2008?

[almango]

The 20th best team in Europe might be one of the best 32 teams in the World, but they're still number 20 in Europe.

I know you were only saying this to illustrate a point, but its very unlikely the 20th best Euro team is in the top 32. Europe always sends a team that performs poorly and comes last in their group, and this is when they have 13-14 teams. I find it hard to believe there are 7 others better than the other last placed teams.

[Caesar]

That may be the longest post I've ever seen on BigSoccer.
3,500 words - that's chicken feed. Check out the Revs forum, I saw a 8,500 word post there the other day. :eek:

[Bermele]

well it 'makes sense' doesn't it. aftre all it is the WORLD cup. lol UEFA have their own national comp... i believe it is Euro 2008?

Yes Europe does have its own tournament, and so does every other confederation like south america has Copa America and Africa has the african cup of nations, etc.... you gotta love the idiots in the world..:rolleyes:

Now back on topic, I think I'm one of very few people who thinks that the spots should be kept the same, thing is that Asia did crap and they totally didnt deserve so many spots, but things will be slightly different now that Australia has joined and China has improved a whole lot and have what it takes to compete with the other 4 that qualified to 2006 and then there are other new possible upsets like Usbekistan, Iraq(semis in the olympics) and maybe even north korea.

South America didnt dissapoint a lot but they didnt shine either which means that they should keep the same 4.5 and have a free playoff against New Zealand or solomon islands.

Africa's 5 spots are fine, they always send potential upsets and this year they got a bit unlucky with the groups and stuff. But they shouldnt get any lesser spots specially since the next world cup is in Africa.

Europe dominated the world cup this year, but let's not forget that they had homefield advantage like asia did back in 2002 and both korea and japan made it far.

Concacaf was sort of a disapointment and them along with asia showed the least and I think that maybe each one of these should give half a spot to Europe but the truth is that it wouldnt make a big difference in the long run.

And while we know that Europe has the largest amount of competitive teams anything more than 16 teams would be an insult to the rest of the world so i think 13-14 is a good number.

[flem16]

Africa's 5 spots are fine, they always send potential upsets and this year they got a bit unlucky with the groups and stuff. But they shouldnt get any lesser spots specially since the next world cup is in Africa.

If Africa does get 5 spots (+ host South Africa) it will be make for some very interesting qualifying groups. Based upon past history, the top seeds for each of the five groups would be Cote D'Ivoire, Togo, Ghana, Tunisia and Angola. That means there's a decent change that traditional African powerhouses like Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegal have a good chance of getting drawn into the same group as a Cote D'Ivoire or Ghana. With the Cup being held in Africa for the first time ever, that would make for some dramatic qualifying games and ultimately huge disappointment for some strong CAF nations.

[vancity eagle]

If Africa does get 5 spots (+ host South Africa) it will be make for some very interesting qualifying groups. Based upon past history, the top seeds for each of the five groups would be Cote D'Ivoire, Togo, Ghana, Tunisia and Angola. That means there's a decent change that traditional African powerhouses like Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegal have a good chance of getting drawn into the same group as a Cote D'Ivoire or Ghana. With the Cup being held in Africa for the first time ever, that would make for some dramatic qualifying games and ultimately huge disappointment for some strong CAF nations.

I highly doubt the CAF officials will seed Togo, Angola etc. Cameroon, and Nigeria, Tunisia have constantly been seeds not just because they qualified 4 WC's but also because they have the best records in the nations cups as well. Togo and Angola were aberrations that hopefully will never be heard from again and did a real disservice to African soccer at the WC. If CAF gives them seeds then they are stupider than I thought. I can almost gaurantee Nigeria and Cameroon will be seeded, along with possibly Ivory Coast, Ghana, and probably Tunisia or Egypt.

[Gary V]

I highly doubt the CAF officials will seed Togo, Angola etc. ... I can almost gaurantee Nigeria and Cameroon will be seeded, along with possibly Ivory Coast, Ghana, and probably Tunisia or Egypt.Hasn't CAF seeded by following the FIFA Coca-Cola list in the past?

[Sagy]

Hasn't CAF seeded by following the FIFA Coca-Cola list in the past?
From the 2006 procedure (http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/releases/all_zones_draw_procedure_en2.pdf) for CAF WCQ it looks like the five top seeds were the teams that qualified for the 2002 WC, the others were seeded based on FIFA ranking.
The 9 other teams advance directly to the 2nd Stage, i.e. the 5 African qualifiers for the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan™ (Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal and Tunisia) and the 4 highest ranking African teams in the FIFA World Ranking published on 25 June 2003 (Morocco, Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire and Congo DR).

[flem16]

From the 2006 procedure for CAF WCQ it looks like the five top seeds were the teams that qualified for the 2002 WC, the others were seeded based on FIFA ranking.


Correct, I looked back at previous qualification from Africa and it has been the teams that qualified for the previous World Cup that were seeded for qualification the next time around. I doubt they'll go off the FIFA Rankings, African Nations Cup or any other formula. They shouldn't change the system just because Nigeria, Cameroon and Senegal all tanked in qualification for Germany.

Thus we will have Angola, Togo, Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire and Tunisia as the top seeds in each group. From there they would take the next four highest rated teams based on the FIFA Rankings as of June 2007. At this time it would include Nigeria, Cameroon, Guinea :eek: and Egypt. These nine teams would advance directly to the 2nd stage while the other nations are drawn into home-and-home games to determine which of those pass to the 2nd round.

With the Cup on African soil for the first time ever these nations will want to qualify more than ever...should make for some battles!

[Edgar]

First round would look like this:

Pot A: Senegal, Morocco, Zambia, Mali, Congo DR, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, Libya, Algeria, Malawi, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ethiopia, Uganda, Cape Verde Islands, Botswana, Benin, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, Kenya
Pot B: Mozambique, Chad, Lesotho, Tanzania, Liberia, Seychelles, Namibia, Mauritius, Swaziland, Madagascar, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Gambia, Mauritania, Niger, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Somalia, Djibouti, São Tomé e Príncipe

Second round:

Pot A: Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Tunisia, Togo, Angola
Pot B: Nigeria, Cameroon, Guinea, Egypt, Senegal
Pot C: Morocco, Zambia, Mali, Congo DR, Zimbabwe
Pot D: Burkina Faso, Libya, Algeria, Malawi, Equatorial Guinea
Pot E: Gabon, Ethiopia, Uganda, Cape Verde Islands, Botswana
Pot F: Benin, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, Kenya

Possible draw:

Group 1: Tunisia, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Libya, Uganda, Rwanda
Group 2: Angola, Cameroon, Zambia, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Sudan
Group 3: Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Algeria, Ethiopia, Kenya
Group 4: Togo, Senegal, Congo DR, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Congo
Group 5: Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Morocco, Malawi, Cape Verde Islands, Benin

I like group 5.