[DoyleG]

Many of you belive that CONCACAF deserves and extra .5 a spot or a full spot, the qualifying sytem will have to be changed. FIFA would accept another spot going to CONCACAF as long as their is a new qualifying system in place.

[thurd]

whts the new system?

[Concacaf]

Originally posted by DoyleG
FIFA would accept another spot going to CONCACAF as long as their is a new qualifying system in place.

Where did you get that from?

[Tick]

Simple enough... go to an octagonal instead of a hexagonal.

Before the Great Post Dump, someone had posted a good qualification system from start to finish that resulted in the same number of games, roughly, and ended with an ocatagonal. Looked good to me.

[CrewDust]

Fourteen game final round is way to many, espically for the teams that would have to play in now.

[Tick]

CrewDust, that's only two more games, and if you read photar's plan, it's fewer games overall.

South America has, what, 18 games in its group stage. We can have 14 just fine.

[blech]

Originally posted by Tick
CrewDust, that's only two more games, and if you read photar's plan, it's fewer games overall.

South America has, what, 18 games in its group stage. We can have 14 just fine.

Unless I'm mistaken, it's actually 4 more games (as they are currently playing only 10 in the last round. Also, don't forget that this is the last round, and that there are games that have to be played in advance of it to narrow it down to only 8 teams (if we go to octagonal). It may be the way to go, but if I remember the proposal, it involved byes through most of the early rounds for US, Mexico, etc. Obviously, sorting out those kinds of details will take some time and consideration.

Perhaps it makes as much sense to split CONCACAF into two groups (with some kind of seeding based on historical performance), have those groups play preliminary rounds to narrow themselves down to 5 or 6 teams each, and then have those 5 or 6 teams play their group finals in a round-robin format. The top team in each group would automatically advance to the World Cup, while the next 2 teams in each group could play a 4-team round robin (or a sudden death playoff) against each other for 3rd and 4th place (3rd advancing and 4th going into the playoff for the half spot). It would seem like this would reduce the total number of games (but could result in good teams being squeezed out on occasion).

[Tick]

Sorry, I'm dumb. 4 games it is. Anyway, I still prefer photar's plan over any plan with split qualifying groups leading directly to WC qualification.

[SJJ]

In the days of BC (before crash), someone posted an idea to have all confederations run under the same qualifying format. With some tweakings by me, here was the idea:

Each confederation would have home-and-home playdowns, to get their teams into group play. All group play would be four-team groups, six games. Top two of each group would qualify, with some playoffs as necessary.

So for Concacaf, if they have 4 bids: three rounds of home-and-home (h+h) rounds to get 35 down to 8. Play two groups of four, top two in each group qualify. (Twelve matchdates, top 3 teams play 10 games.)

If they have 3 bids, same format to get down to 8, play two groups. Group winners qualify, second-place teams play-off. (Fourteen matchdates, top teams play 12 or 10.)

If they have 3.5 bids, same format, group winners and better second-place qualify, other second place has play-off with other conferation.

Even the two group winners could have a h+h for the unofficial champion of the confederation.

If Eufa has 14 bids, only need one round to get 51 down to 28. Play seven groups, top two in each group qualify. (Only eight matchdates, top teams play 6.)

The beauty is that each confederation plays the same schedule. All group play is begun and ended on the same matchdates. (Probably fewer games played overall, also, and Fifa has expressed a concern of playing too many games.)

[Qdog]

Sorry SJJ, but that would never work. It would take cooperation and FIFA and the confederations working for the good of soccer.