Yep. I'm not sure people who aren't in CONCACAF understand our system. We have a multi-tiered qualification, so a team like Greenland would, in all likelihood, be drawn with a Caribbean nation with a population of a half million or something in the first round, and they'd get beat, and that would be that. In UEFA, they'd get a full qualifying slate, with one match against a big nation for sure. That one match would do alot to fund the Greenland FA. In CONCACAF, the micronations have to either be incredibly lucky and draw Mexico or the US early, or they have to pull off a miracle result and then get a little bit lucky and draw the US or Mexico in the next round. Also, Greenland would get two of these matches in UEFA because they'd have two qualifications every four years instead of one in CONCACAF. (The US and Mexico automatically qualify for the Gold Cups.) I'm NOT getting into a fight about the quality of the confederations. I'm just pointing out that the two confederations have very different systems and if given a choice, UEFA is the way to go because of the money.
Gold Cup qualifications would be an interesting predicament to think about as well. Should they be forced to qualify in the Caribbean tournament even though they are not a Caribbean nation (culturally , regionally or otherwise)? Or should they play Canada in a playoff somehow?
You don't seem to know that CONCACAF's format of qualifying for World Cup 2014 is different from what they used for World Cups 2006 and 2010. If WCQs started today with every CONCACAF country participating and the current FIFA Rankings were used for seeding with Greenland in CONCACAF with 0 FIFA Ranking points, here's what they would need to do to qualify: 1. Win a two leg series against Bermuda, Dominica, Belize, Bahamas, Montserrat, or Curacao. In Round 1, there would be six two leg series to reduce the number of teams remaining from 36 to 30. 2. Win a group of four teams of which the other three didn't play in Round 1. The top six don't have to play in this round. There would be six groups in Round 2 and the best team in Greenland's hypothetical group would be Canada, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, or Cuba. El Salvador would be arguably the best team in this round other than those six. Round 2 would reduce the field from 30 countries to 12 countries. 3. Finish top two in a Semifinal group of four. There would be three groups with each group having two Round 2 group winners and two teams that started here. The six teams that start here would be Mexico, USA, Haiti (they haven't done anything specials in WCQs but are third in CONCACAF in the FIFA Rankings), Panama, Jamaica, and Honduras. 4. Finish top three in the six team Hexagonal or finish fourth and win an interconfederational playoff with the Oceania winner.
The bottom teams are not real teams just a bunch of surfers friend sucking yanki-mexican money, acting like playing football; the 99% of north americans (525 millons people) choose to kick fast the parasite last 1% (1millon). The UEFA version in Concacaf is 35 teams split in 4 group of 8 or 9 teams with the winner of the group with minus point playing the playoff to OFC, none MEX-USA game full of Nobody vs None games playing for nothing, suck.
There are 35 FIFA members in CONCACAF and if Greenland joins that would make 36. Only 3.5 CONCACAF teams go to the World Cup. How would the groups be divided? Do you create 4 groups and the group winners are the top 4 teams? How would the team that goes into the playoff be decided? It works better in UEFA since they have a lot of spots.
I admit it's a more difficult situation but I'm sure there are plenty of well-paid bureaucrats who can come up with a system that gives a team more than two games to prove themselves. Bear in mind that a full run in the current qualifiers is 24 games, that gives you a lot of room to play with. Perhaps two divisions, with promotion and relegation every two year cycle. With 18 teams in each division, you play a single round-robin for 17 games. Hire some statisticians to come up with an equally difficult schedule for each team. The bottom four of the top division playoff against the top four of the bottom division for promotion, in a seven-game, eight team league that could be played during other tournaments.
I think UEFA should use a multi tier qualification, even if its just two tiers. The first tier could be regionalised too.
How would that even work? Portugal, Spain, France and Italy in one qualifying group, Russia, Ukraine, Finland and Estonia in another?
The lesser CONCACAF countries probably couldn't financially afford to play that many games against each other with none of them being against USA or Mexico that would provide the lesser countries with more money. I like that so many countries have a chance at qualifying.
Use the seedings to have the top 15 seeded into the second round but the first round have the unseeded teams in 8 groups of 4 or 5 having the top team in each group progressing to the second round and 7 more runners up from the hardest groups. First round group might be, Iceland, Faroes, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Another group with Andorra, San Marino, Malta, Lichtenstein and Luxemberg. Another group with Finland, Estonia, Lituania and Latvia. Another group with Iseral, Cyprus, Macadonia and Albania. Another group with Azerbajan, Armenia, Kazakstan, Georgia and Turkey. Another group with Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia and Bulgaria. Another group with Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia Another group with Bosnia, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus I know some groups are worse than others for example my second group, just the way it fell geographically, Give them only one spot the the next round and give all the other groups two spots. Also it might give San Marino a chance to pick up their first co-efficient points. Also Bosnia have to travel further, just to avoid playing Serbia in the first round, If you say this is stupid, why do Israel play in Uefa? I may have left out a country or two but cant see who. This is based on Fifa's current rankings in Uefa.
Back on topic Kosovo are trying to be recognized by Fifa & Uefa but as most countries don't recognize the country at all then i cant see this happening.
What exactly is the logic of geographical qualifying? Surely the best teams should qualify, not just the best in arbitrarily-drawn areas.
https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/why-does-israel-play-in-uefa.1493337/ Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Azerbaijan play in UEFA and are east of Israel.
In (team) handball, Greenland plays in the Pan American confederation. They've had some success, too.
I like confederation qualifying. The issue for me is how many spots each confederation should have at the World Cup.
Geographical qualifying is necessary on a confederational level. Example - Burundi could not afford to travel to Brunei, Anguilla and Faroe Islands in a qualifying group. It's very logical in that respect. Even within confederations, some federations struggle to pay for travel costs when they have to travel to the other side of the continent. UEFA and CONMEBOL are the exceptions.
Greenland would surely play in Europe. They have the cultural connection to Denmark, for one. Most of their matches have come against European teams (Iceland, Faroe Islands and many European islands at the biennial Island Games). Also, Greenland has apparently applied to join UEFA in the past (and been turned down), so this seems to be where they want to play.
it's not just a cultural connection, it's also a political one... Greenlanders even have Danish passports no? Will definitely be going to UEFA....
Still a Very long Distance from Faroes Islands to Israel, Id compare it to Vancouver to Miami, I know this could potentially happen in the MLS but the reason why the MLS and US soccer has so much traveling is largely due to the lack of teams, Uefa have more countries than North America (bar Mexico) has Pro soccer clubs. Why not Reduce traveling costs and stop the likes of Germany hammering the likes of San Marino 13-0. Also someone mistake me above, Im not saying the winner of my 2nd group would qualify for the World cup, but would qualify to play the best countries in Europe in the Final qualifying phase.