How about a 'Second Division' World Cup where all the teams who didn't quite manage to qualify got to take part in a little competition of their own? Based on the 2006 qualification process and final positions, these would have been the 32 "next best" qualifiers: EUROPE - Turkey, Slovakia, Norway, Romania, Denmark, Russia, Israel, Scotland, Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Greece, Ireland, Belgium AFRICA - Senegal, DR Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Morocco, SOUTH AMERICA - Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Uruguay ASIA - Uzbekistan, China, Kuwait, North Korea, Bahrain CONCACAF - Guatemala, Panama, Honduras Who would win a World Cup tournement with these teams? I'd have to put money on Cameroon, Uruguay, maybe Denmark...?
Why not? It would give teams who don't get a lot of internation exposure a brief moment in the spotlight... would maybe generate some income for federations who don't get a whole lot... give their players an opportunity to test themselves against countries and playing styles they don't often come up against. I think it could be fun!
no but perhaps its kind of an interesting discussion....perhaps. I like Denmark, Russia, or maybe Greece.
Huh, Finland is not even eligible to Second Division. I don't think those European teams in that list are eager to take part in a Second Division as long as teams like Trinidad and Tobago or Iran and Saudi Arabia are in the First Division...
actaully i thin k the Confederations should be double tiered, merge the americas and the oceania and asia so u have four large federations, and then take your best 10-20 as "division1" try to figure in cup compettitions as incentives to go to world cup, move the continenetal cups to one yr before the world cup so the continental winners would qualify by winning the tourney and the remmainder would have to still try to qualify thru regular qualifications and play offs
What about Division 3? EUROPE - Finland, Estonia, Slovenia, Northern Ireland, Hungary, Macedonia, Albania, Latvia, Cyprus, Belarus, Wales, Lithuania, Iceland, Georgia AFRICA - Congo, Burkina Faso, Libya, Gabon, Kenya SOUTH AMERICA - Bolivia OFC - Solomon Islands ASIA - Lebanon, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Iraq CONCACAF - Jamaica, St. Vincent, Canada, El Salvador WILDCARDS - Jordan, Algeria
I've always been partial to going all the way to the bottom (taken from the current FIFA rankings, because it's easiest): EUROPE - Montenegro, San Marino, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Estonia, Iceland, Malta, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Georgia AFRICA - São Tomé e Príncipe, Djibouti, Somalia, Guinea-Bissau, Central African Republic SOUTH AMERICA - Bolivia OFC - American Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga ASIA - Guam, Timor-Leste, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Macau CONCACAF - Aruba, Montserrat, US Virgin Islands, Belize I think I'd have to give this one to either Bolivia or Georgia. I loved the match some sponsor put together between Montserrat and Bhutan in '02. I was sad that it wasn't replicated in '06 between American Samoa and Turks and Caicos. I guess two tiny islands playing each other wasn't as exotic as a tiny volcano team playing a team from the midst of the Himalayas. All the more reason to play a tournament like that: Bhutan's win may have boosted them significantly. They're now at 190, but they were 202 in '02 prior to the match. But most importantly, the flamewars between Bhutan and Montserrat supporters on BigSoccer had me in stitches for weeks.
then fifa really messed up. where is th balance if half the world cup field is european. i say give two berths per confederation and play off the rest of the spots like in champions league
I think one of the GREAT things about the world cup is that it actually is the one championship that all countries are eligible for, the resulting winner is the best national team in the world. Moving towards multiple champions at different levels wouuld just cheapen it, in my opinion.
Coming soon to ESPN8 'the ocho', the World Consolation Cup, where the winner can rightfully claim "we're number 33!"
interesting idea, I'd thought of this before, however a second division WC couldn't be as big as the real one. Too much organization for a secondary cup. It would have to be more similar to the confederations cup, like 8 teams or possibly 12 or 16. THis would be interesting and would still provide quality matchups with excellent sides from europe and africa missing out. I'd like Nigerias chances if this took place last year, if not I'd say Denmark.
Don't they do this in world hockey? Like have 4 different tiered tournaments. Although they probably do that for ranking purposes because of the lack of fixtures and such.
Then of course you have the non-league conference finals: Vatican City, Monaco, Guadeloupe, Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Tuvalu, Guam, Papu New Guinea, etc... I love it!
Yes, they do - although the two middle levels are split into two groups: http://www.iihf.com/hockey/tournam/tournaments.htm There is active promotion and relegation between the levels (two up, two down)