Let's see - Politics Power Money Local Rivalries Tradition Even though I would love to see Brazil fly and play in The Solomon Islands France in Surinam South Africa in The Faroes Mexico in the Maldives ...the novelty and silliness would be short lived. Nice dream, but dreams and reality usually have a way of clashing and not making much sense. No matter how nice it sounds on paper.
Also, a euro supporter typically giving a little more credit than some of those countries mentioned above actually deserve.
Please justify on a factual on the field performance throught he last 20 years why they are deserved? Those little things called facts are going to get in the way of your emotions... unless you are a fanatic where nothing but what you want to see matters.
for countries that too far away from each other, the match can be played in the neutral country, that located right in the middle, between the two.
So on the Oceania front you are arguing that because Oceania teams have struggled to qualify through a qualification system that makes it almost impossible for Oceania teams to qualify then no change to the Oceania qualification system is required?
One big difference: There is no Baseball team anywhere in the world outside MLB that could hold a candle to the Yankees, or any other MLB team for that matter (excluding the Expos). Same goes for 'Kevlarmor Rugby' and the Super Bowl. But if you had just one continent in the World Cup it wouldn't be legit because there's other countries outside that continent that would have a chance of winning.
............................................................................. Tell that guy that although Romania has Holland and Czech rep. in the group ,their main worry will be ..Andora!!!
In the last 20 years, Australia could not beat Uruguay, Iran, Scotland, Argentina and Isreal to qualify for the WC. Now, aside from Arhentina, we are hardly talking about teams that inspire terror in others. No nation should qualify on the WC by beating Tonga 28-0 or by beating that regional powerhouse New Zealand. OFC does not merit a WC spot simply by virtue of geography. If Aussies are so eager to see their time be given a 'fair chance' to qualify, petition the CONMEBOL to let you play in the SA group. 11 teams, 5 direct spots, except of course, that Australia have proven unable to beat the 5th SA team. Still though, you'd get a 'fair chance.'
el_urchinio, You're a spikey little bugger, hey ? First of all, AUS has never beaten Tonga 28-0. The best they've done is 22-0. As much as you (& I for that matter) may think so, Oceania is not just Australia. There happen to be 11 other national FA's in the confederation. As to AUS being unable to get over the last WCQ hurdle so many times in recent history, if you were even a partially thinking person, then you'd understand the argument being made about the futility of having a weak leadup to a life & death H&A shoot-out afterwards against a team that's had a decent competition/preparation. I've been on this MB suggesting for some time that AUS should disaffiliate from Oceania & affiliate with CONMEBOL, as an option to its WCQ quandry. FIFA wouldn't allow it, as it'd mean the end of Oceania (my best scenario) and they (FIFA) would have to get off their collective bums and do something about the FA's of this region. I'm sure you'be be proven to be very wrong if AUS were to play their WCQ games against the 10 FA's of CONMEBOL (ie 20 H&A games). My guess, pointless as it may be, is that AUS would be more than competitive in a short time. You seem to forget AUS' recent history (such as the Confeds Cup 2001 - beating France {champions of WC1998 & EURO2000}, Brazil, Mexico in the group phase & playing off for the championship & other performances over the past 4 years) as this may undermine your position. In CONMEBOL's WC2006 qualification tournament, where's Uruguay (AUS' nemesis 4 years ago) at the moment ? Last ? Venezuela ? Use your brain for a change and not your ignorant prejudice.
With 24 you can get the best 3rd placed teams in round 2. With 36 you have to leave out some of the runners-up. That's not a good system. Europe have been deprived of a few spots already lately. They now have 14 while they had 13 (on 24 teams) in 1994. I think Europe should get back a spot, not lose even more. Asia have far to many spots now, so Oceania should get one of theirs.
Forza AZ, FIFA ran a Youth WC of 36 recently in Saudi Arabia. Can't see any reason why they can't follow that methodology. FIFA should forcibly merge the two confederations (AFC & OFC) and their WC Finals places (4.5 + 0.5). FIFA should then force both confederations to actually sort out a more equitable & logical qualification route (under threat of FIFA imposing one), without FIFA taking any places away from any other confederation. FIFA hasn't shown any courage todate, at least not anything like this course of action would demand of them. FIFA won't move on anything until they're forced to do so.
Further to that, none of those teams did anything special in the finals after beating Australia in the playoff. Only Argentina (I think) made the second round, where they were well beaten by Romania. The rest of those teams picked up the odd point or even a win (ie Iran v USA), but no more than that.
Mmmmm, reminds me somewhat of Scotland's & England's performances at their last WC Finals appearances.
Since I first posted this idea, I have been thinking. Strange at that may seem, however why not have 40 world cup qualifiers, meaning the first round would be eight groups of five teams top two go through to round of sixteen, just think with 40 spots available it would allow europe to have at least 20 teams in the finals you would then have 5 african teams, five Asian teams, 5 South American teams, 4.5 North American teams with Oceania still with it's wonderful half spot, what a wonderful world!
How can anyone advocate taking spots from UEFA ? Look who missed out on EURO2004 qualifying (there were 15 places which is more or less what we get for the WC). Usual quaifyers who missed 2004:Romania, Rep Ireland, Turkey, Belgium, Serb & Mont. Occasional Qualifyers who missed 2004: Poland, Scotland, Austria, Norway, Slovenia Pretty decent teams who never get a chance to qualify: Ukraine, Wales, Finland, Hungary, Slovakia. So there are 15 teams who would have felt they would have had a chnace to qulaify for EURO2004 who didn't. The same thing will apply in Germany in two years time. You've got to give the border-line UEFA teams a chance to qualify. South AMerica advances half of it's teams - UEFA nowhere near that amount, and as I have shown there are around 30 decent countries in UEFA. If anything UEFA should get more.
Rambler, Would you be anywhere near satisfied with all 32 World Cup Finals places being granted to UEFA ??? Oh, so how greedy would you really be ??? Let's into your thoughts as to how the 32 places should be dealt out by FIFA, and reasons behind your allocation !
I suppose FIFA could have 16 groups of 3 teams in the finals. Winners of each group enter the second round. That's 48 teams to start off with. 24 teams from UEFA 6 - teams from CONMEBOL 3 - teams from CONCACAF 3 - teams from African Confed 3 - teams from Asia 1 - Oceania still plays play-off with South America, since Australia really don't deserve to be garanteed a qualifications spot every four years forever. Yes that would make it fairer. But I honestly prefer the system now. UEFA deserve 13 teams at least just for the sheer strength of the confederation. *France *Italy *Spain *Germany *England *Netherlands *Czech Republic *Portugal *Sweden *Denmark *Turkey *Rep. Of Ireland *Belgium *Wales (they have Bellamy, Giggs, etc) *Romania *Greece *Norway *Yugoslavia *Croatia all these teams are better than any CONCACAF team, then you have teams that are on the level of the best CONCACAF region has to offer, like Latvia, Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary.
How can you possibly lobby for CONCACAF to get less spots in a 40 team WC? USA got to the quarters at WC02, Mexico won their group (included Italy), and Costa Rica was only eliminated on goal differential to eventual semi-finalist Turkey. And it's also not fair to cut CAF to three spots, although I can't really argue taking spots from Asia.
I must be old fashioned because when I coached and my need won every game in their league then they won the right to represent the area. This happens with every confederation except one - Oceania. Oceania is forced to play on a different playing field to the other confederations but yet Oceania is a confederation just like UEFA, AFC, etc. So my question very simply is how do you correct this so that a country in the current Oceania area can beat every other contry in it's qualification zone and get entry to the World Cup? Playoff games are for teams who have just missed out on qualifying in their qualification zone to have a second chance - they are not for the qualification zone champion to somehow have to justify that the qualification zone should exist at all.
I think the running theory is that until Australia has even a little serious competition in qualifying, they shouldn't be basically awarded a trip to the Finals just so OFC can be represented. Better, I agree, to merge with another conference.
I tend to look at this with the future in mind and under the current system the All Whites are restricted to being a third class team. In New Zealand sports teams have two main sources of income: 1) SPARC - Government funding of sport is done through a body called Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC). SPARC allocates money depending on how successful a team can be. Currently New Zealand Soccer only receives "Participation" funding - this is money to help keep the local leagues running. It is not for promoting the national team and is certainly well short of the money required to promote the All Whites. SPARC has openly said that under the current system the All Whites have little to no chance of qualifying for the World Cup so no "elite performance payments" will be made to New Zealand Soccer. Without these payments the All Whites will always struggle to compete with large budget South American teams. 2) Corporate Sponsorship - To get any serious corporate sponsorship you have to be successful. Corporates want to associate themselves with a winning image and in New Zealand that is the All Blacks (our rugby union team who are currently ranked #1 in the world). The only chance New Zealand Soccer has to get serious sponsorship is for the corporate to see a chance that the All Whites could qualify for the World Cup. Under the current qualification system that is almost impossible. I think what frustrates most people in the New Zealand soccer scene is that the odds are stacked against us and nobody seems to give a **********. We don't want things given to us - that is not the Kiwi way - but we want a fair go. What we need is a fair system of qualification so that we win or lose by our performances on the field. I believe the best way for this to happen is to have the OFC nations qualify in pools with our AFC neighbours. It means that the OFC nations get the game time rather than playing a couple of serious games and then meeting a battle hardened South American team - that system is stacked too far against the Oceania qualifier.
Well for the Kiwis to go, the response would be, is to beat a team that has never qualified for the Cup in my lifetime, and then win a home and home. But it shouldn't be surprising that New Zealand can't qualify for the Cup. As small as they are population wise and with Soccer not being the primary sport (think Canada with fewer people), I honestly don't think you'd be qualifying from anywhere. The Aussies are a decent team, but still, the layoff isn't the ONLY reason these guys are losing the home and homes. They're STILL a country of what, 20 million?, whose first sport is Australian Rules Footall, their second sport is Rugby, their third sport is Soccer BARELY over Cricket. If the US had 20 million in it, we'd SUCK at soccer. The Kiwis are just mini-Aussies.....if you guys abandoned Rugby and Cricket and Aussie Football, you guys might stand a chance to qualify. Sure, the Danes only have 5 million as well...but Soccer is sports one, two, and three, with Team Handball being the fourth.
The sport of preference in Australia seems to depend on the state you are in: Victoria - AFL New South Wales - Rugby League Cricket is a HUGE sport in Australia - it helps when you are ranked #1 in the world. Rubgy union would be behind the above three with soccer behind rugby union. Next you will be called the Irish mini-English Aussie Football is such a minor sport in New Zealand it is not funny. The most popular sport in New Zealand for people under 16 is soccer. The problem is that at the kids get older and see the All Blacks (union) and Kiwis (league) do so well and the All Whites (soccer) not even feature we lose them.