Because they have something called European Championships, which also require lengthy qualification, so they only really have a year and a half to shake the WC qualification down. You want to introduce another level of qualification on top of the existing qualifications? No thanks.
The usual reason - politics. The minnows in Uefa have all votes and don't want to lose the lucrative matches against the big guns
Through Wednesday 6/25. A rather ho-hum day at the World Cup. CONMEBOL Round 1: 4 wins, 0 ties, 2 losses Round 2: 5 wins, 1 ties, 0 losses Round 3: 4 wins, 1 ties, 1 loss 2.3 ppg, 76% of potential points taken Fix out of six ain't too shabby. CONCACAF: Round 1: 3 wins, 0 ties, 1 loss Round 2: 1 win, 2 ties, 1 loss Round 3: 1 win, 1 ties, 1 losses 1.6 ppg, 55% of potential points taken Honduras tried to be the worst team in the WC this year, but were slightly inclassed by Cameroon. UEFA: Round 1: 6 wins, 1 tie, 6 losses Round 2: 4 wins, 3 ties, 6 losses Round 3: 5 wins, 2 ties, 2 losses 1.5 ppg, 49% of potential points taken UEFA is thoroughly dominating round 3. UEFA is getting close to CONCACAF in ppg. CAF: Round 1: 1 win, 1 tie, 3 losses Round 2: 2 wins, 1 tie, 2 losses Round 3: 0 wins, 0 ties, 3 losses 0.9 ppg, 28% of potential points taken Nigeria breaks into the final 16. With Bosnia taking case of business, today's match versus Argentina was fairly meaningless. If Algeria makes it through (and they are no lock), would two African teams in the final 16 be considered successful? I didn't think so either. AFC: Round 1: 0 wins, 2 ties, 2 losses Round 2: 0 wins, 1 tie, 3 losses Round 3: 0 wins, 0 ties, 3 losses 0.3 ppg, 9% of potential points taken Another day, another loss for Asia. Were it not for Cameroon and Honduras, all four Asian teams would be in the bottom five. These jabronies have gotten a total of 3 points for the entire tournament so far. Round of 16 5 COMNEBOL teams in Netherlands-Mexico - Mortal lock that Mexico crashes out. Costa Rica-Greece - Battle of the minnows. Personally, the matchups decided today are not super exciting - France-Nigeria and Argentina-Switzerland. However, Confederation pride will be at stake. Of the decided teams (in or out): 5 COMNEBOL (83%), 2 CONCACAF (67%), 6 UEFA* (50%), 1 CAF (33%). Two spots still up for grabs - USA/Ghana and Algeria/Russia *Includes Germany (almost definitely in) or Portugal (almost definitely out)
Note: Results on direct head-to-head round 3 deciding matches: Italy-Uruguay. Italy would be in with a tie - and lost Ivory Coast-Greece. Ivory Coast would be in with a tie - and lost Mexico-Croatia. Mexico would be in with a tie - and won Update through Wednesday 6/25 In (or 95+% of the way there. Example - France), Favored (These are teams that only need a tie to go through. Italy, USA) Strong Shot (Teams are in with a win, but could be undone by a tie. Algeria, Ivory Coast) Long shot (Teams that have a hope, but need help from others. Ghana.) Out (or 95%+ of the way there. Example - Honduras) By Confederation: UEFA: In: 6 - Netherlands, France, Belgium, Greece, Switzerland Favored: 1 - Germany Strong Shot: 0 Long Shot: 2 - Russia (35% chance to go through), and Portugal (5%) Out: 4 - Croatia, Spain, England, Bosnia, Italy. COMNEBOL: In: 5 - Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay Favored: 0 Strong Shot: 0 Long Shot: 0 Out: 1 - Ecuador Popcorn time. CONCACAF: In: 2 - Costa Rica, Mexico Favored: 1 - USA Strong Shot: 0 Long shot: 0 Out: 1 - Honduras CAF: In: 1 - Nigeria Favored: 0 Strong Shot: 1 - Algeria Long Shot: 1 - Ghana Out: 1 - Cameroon, Ivory Coast AFC In: 0 Favored: 0 Strong Shot: 0 Long shot: 0 Out: 4 - All of them are bums
You mean the meaningless game they stated they would "approach like the final" because winning it avoided the bracket with Brazil , Germany, Colombia and France?
The fact that Honduras lost all its matches and is the second worst team in this WC (behind Cameroon) tells me we don't need more spots for CONCACAF. The top 3 teams are good but the quality drops sharply after that. I'm not convinced that the teams that finished behind Honduras would have added anything to the WC, certainly not more than the second tier of UEFA. Keep in mind that not a single UEFA team ended pointless in the group stages and Italy was the only one not to get points from a non-European team. Also, I fail to see why Panama or El Salavador would bring more diversity to the WC than, say, Russia, Greece or Turkey. Just because these teams happen to be located on the same continent (well, partly), does not mean they have some generic "European" culture. This argument is just absurd to me. I also notice that people keep shifting the goal posts. When CAF sends 2/5 teams to the next round, it is a sign that they are improving and therefore they deserve more spots. But when UEFA sends 6-7/13 teams to the next round, which is statistically better than CAF's performance, it shows that European teams are overrated and they should give their spots to other confederations. The argument gets particularly ridiculous when the AFC is brought in. How can anyone claim with a straight face that Asia deserves more teams at the WC at the expense of Europe when all of their teams finished dead last in their group and not a single one has managed to win so far? The fact is that there are 32 teams at the start of the WC and only half of them go through. Therefore, if the berths are allocated accurately, you would expect each confederation to send about 50% of its teams to the next round. The more teams you have, the less chance for statistical anomalies. UEFA consistently sends 50% or more of its teams to the R16 so you cannot say they're underachieving or unworthy of those spots at all.
who to win? I say Brazil Colombia France Holland Costa Rica Argentina Im probably wrong on most, giving how unexpected this WC has been
Group State Final CONMEBOL Round 1: 4 wins, 0 ties, 2 losses Round 2: 5 wins, 1 ties, 0 losses Round 3: 4 wins, 1 ties, 1 loss 2.3 ppg, 76% of potential points taken Fix out of six ain't too shabby, though four of the teams packed into one quarter of the bracket is odd. UEFA: Round 1: 6 wins, 1 tie, 6 losses Round 2: 4 wins, 3 ties, 6 losses Round 3: 8 wins, 3 ties, 2 losses 1.6 ppg, 52% of potential points taken UEFA snuck into second place on ppg and % of points taken on the last day. CONCACAF: Round 1: 3 wins, 0 ties, 1 loss Round 2: 1 win, 2 ties, 1 loss Round 3: 1 win, 1 ties, 2 losses 1.5 ppg, 50% of potential points taken CONCACAF finishes group stage with an overall winning record. CAF: Round 1: 1 win, 1 tie, 3 losses Round 2: 2 wins, 1 tie, 2 losses Round 3: 0 wins, 1 ties, 4 losses 0.8 ppg, 27% of potential points taken African teams really sank badly in the last round. Two did qualify for the knockout stage, but this WC should have been better. AFC: Round 1: 0 wins, 2 ties, 2 losses Round 2: 0 wins, 1 tie, 3 losses Round 3: 0 wins, 0 ties, 4 losses 0.3 ppg, 9% of potential points taken All I can say is - good riddance to Asia. Iran was the only team that showed me anything this tournament, and they simply cannot score goals. Round of 16 5 COMNEBOL (tied their 2010 record) 6 UEFA 3 CONCACAF (new record) 2 CAF (tied 2010 and 1994 record)
Just a thought: when team A beats team B, Team A gets all 3 points and, thus, 100% of the points, while Team B gets 0 points and 0%. What if there is a tie: Team A gets 1 point (33%), Team B gets 1 point (33%). 33% goes into thin air. I would suggest using 2 points for a win in these sorts of calculations.
Of the 8 last place teams...Asia had 4. (!!!!!) CONCACAF had one. Europe had one. (England!) Africa had two, including the "worst" team in the Cup, Cameroon. (To me, the concept of ranking teams who play different schedules is just weird, but soccer is the world's game, and non-Americans think it makes sense, so there it is.)
It's not fair to compare teams by points, they earned them against completely different opponents. South Korea did a lot worse than Cameroon, and way worse than Australia. And Iran, they tanked into 1 point, that's not comparable to the 1 pt earned by Japan.