I personally think the 36 team World Cup proposed by CONMEBOL is the DUMBEST idea ever. Why ruin it when its perfect?? Unless of course they want to fix the officiating.
you know what that means it means that there wont really be real competition for the truly good teams in the world to be able to qualify...for example...if concafac were to receive, what is it 4 or 5, slots, mexico, usa, and Costa rica would proabably always advance...with the remaining slots being fought by jamaica, guatemala, el salvador... is panama part of concacaf, or conmebol? just my thoughts...the WC is fine as is, a little competition did not hurt anybody... ps- EUFA with 16 slots, give me a break, what is that, all of their members will automatically qualify for the WC, at least a huge percentage. just my thoughts. iowa007
Re: you know what that means UEFA has something like 52 members. A higher percentage of South American teams qualify than European teams. And in the past few world cups, a higher percentage of UEFA qualifiers advanced to the second round than SA qualifiers. Once you get beyond Argentina and Brazil. not too many South American teams are serious threats to win the thing.
More teams means more games which means more money. It's all about money. Having 32 teams was perfect though, two from each group advance, it's perfect. South America says jump and FIFA says how high. Germany said yes because it makes more money, it's sad.
it is VERY sad... Conmebol should just WAIT a few years and demand more slots for the 2014 world cup. instead of pulling this monstrosity out of their collective anus. and since sepp "50 bad ideas and corrupt to boot" blatter is in charge we can be sure it will come to pass.. the money signs are already firmly cemented in his eyes. Footie fans of the world unite... and march on FIFA headquarters.
Re: Re: you know what that means In WC98 4 out of 5 southameican teams went to the second round. That is 80%. I don't think UEFA can beat that. And in 1990 100% (4 out of 4) of the southamerican team advanced to the second round. So when comparing the highest percentage of teams that went to the second round from UEFA and Conmebol you will have it like this: 1990 Conmebol 1994 UEFA 1998 Conmebol 2002 UEFA So what you said is not true...
He should have talked about the quarterfinal percentages instead, shouldn't he. Not that it really matters, in the end both CONMEBOL and UEFA have the best stats, they shouldn't have lost places to Asia. edit: although this crusade of sorts to get their spot back through the 36 teams idea shouldn't have happened though. Just prove yourself on the pitch in 2006, and you'll have a stronger case to demand it back. Especially when no Asian team gets to the 2nd round
Re: Re: Re: you know what that means Fair enough on one point. But the point that only two CONMEBOL sides have a ghost of a chance of winning it stands.
I personally think even 32 is too many. the later round games in the last two cups have been poor because the players are too tired. 24 is the ideal number but this will never happen secondary to money issues.
Re: Re: Re: Re: you know what that means OK but since we are talking percentages those 2 teams make up 20% of the confederation... UEFA consists of 51 teams and that means that UEFA should have 10 teams that have a chance of winning the WC to make the same percentage... Simply put UEFA don't have 10 teams that are on the same level as Argentina and Brazil.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: you know what that means Simply put, South American teams would be a lot worse of their best players didn't play in Europe, exposing themselves to much better competition
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: you know what that means European leagues wouldn't be as good without the all the south american players raising the level of competition... Keep in mind that before the diaspora of south american players started south american leagues were at least as strong as the top european leagues if not better. Just look at the number of times that south american teams has won the intercontinental cup.
For the record, Sepp Blatter opposes the idea of a 36 team World Cup. And for the record, taking a spot away from South America (in fact, anyone except maybe Asia) to benefit Oceania is an even stupider idea, which is where this 36 team idea comes from in the first place.
Hurray for a larger World Cup One month is toooooo short for a competition like this! Is too fast, is too short, and WC needs more groups to add more countries, and not take a spot away to anybody (As the monstruosity of leaving SAmerica with 4...Many other countries after Brasil and Argentina, has the high level to be in the WC) , but givin more ,Yes! Not only to give everybody a chance, people enjoy so much the WC month-sport-exiting-and party days, and we feel like missing something joyful when its over. It will make to develope football in all those countries considered as small! Of course, those teams will prepare to be there.
World Cup is a world competition, it has to give chances to more countries, more teams. Some may say it would be boring to watch a Big one team playing against an Unknown team, maybe for that person is boring, but not for the country of that unknown team, no matter if they lose,they had the chance and maybe later they will win. More competiton. World competition : the World Cup for everybody able to be there.
stupid. nobody wants to see bhutan vs. brazil. it would be humiliating. besides thats not the issue. the issue is greed and ruining a good thing.
I liked the idea of having a pre-cup tourney with each confederation having one (or 2) entrant to determine the last 2 or 3 slots. Oceania would have it's only spot, Concacaf #4, Conmebol #5, Asia #3 (or #4), Africa #5, and UEFA #982 (or whatever it is). Maybe 2 from UEFA and none from Africa or none from Asia. It would just be the 1/2 seeds as they exist now, except it would be held at the site country and it would give soccer nuts a chance to get pumped pre-tourney....