Being that Australia of all nations has practically been handed a WC spot from now on isnt it time FIFA make a few worthy countries WC fixtures with no qualification needed? I mean cmon. At least 3 nations come to mind that should be automatic. Any Nation that wins 3 championships should be guarenteed a spot. Brazil, German and Italy. Brazil has won 30% of all WC's, to have them not make it by some freak of nature like almost happened in 02 is wrong. They have shown they belong year after year. So has Germany and for the most part Italy (3 titles). Besides them nobody should be guarenteed, like i said 3 titles should be the rule of thumb. Maybe they can add a rule that if 5 WC's pass and you dont win again, then you must start qualifying again just to keep them honest.
They definitely shouldn't. Besides that Australia is a special problem, which is not comparable to other nations, it also is no advantage to avoid qualifiers. The past often proved that those team, who just friendlies over the last two years before a tournament, had big trouble to switch the key to competition level. Also, soccer is no historical but a current business, and without exception: anyone, who does not survive the qualifiers, also does not deserve to play the tournament - regardless whether it's Brazil, Fiji, Germany or Andorra
So technically there are only 31 teams in the World Cup, i mean, if your handed a spot your not really in the cup...
No, but only 31 teams qualify. FIFA may do some stupid things, but I can't see them awarding a cup to a nation who couldn't compete.
They just did. Australia. I do think nations ought to qualify. Only the host (and possibly the defending champion, but that's a thing of the past) should get automatic berths to the finals.
Naw, it was the defending champ with the auto-bid. Having a Cup without the host nation's participation would be a bad move.
I think the nations that were originally mentioned, and England, because they invented football, should automatically qualify. Why, because the World Cup would suck without these countries.
What? countries should get automatic berths in the cup now? that's ridiculous. So if a country won 3 world cups they should be in all the world cups. Italy won 2 of those when the game was not even developed. The only freak of nature reason why Brazil almost and Holland didnt make the world cup for 2002 was because they didnt play well. If you have all the star players but cant win on the field why should you be rewarded? So what if the traditional soccer nations dont make the world cup? if they dont qualify on the field they dont deserve to be in the tournament.
The level of soccer rises and falls.... by historical records, Uruguay should be handle an auto-WC spot along with Brazil, Germany, Argentina and England. But does Uruguay desire an auto-WC spot??? Thirty years from now, do we still handle auto-spot to traditional power who faded away. Even if they handle Germany, Brazil, Argentina and England auto-spot, will the WC Finals be great??? The great traditional powers need to play meaningful games to maintain their level. For Argentina and Brazil, their national teams would only play 4 or more meaningful games all in the same year(my assumption based on the fact that South American countries took less serious on Copa America). Would they still be good team? I think not.... Germany and England might do better since they still need to qualify for European Champion. They would have hard times beating Spain or Holland.
I suppose that if the great Hungary team of 1954 had come up with that Cup title, the 80th ranked team we see there now would be able to also compete in every world cup.............doesnt seem right to me
if you think as the qualifiers as part of the overall tournament (which they are) then it makes even less sense because you're basically just sticking them in for atleast 32nd out of 203. I understand that the credibility of FIFA Coke ranking system in showing real power rankings (Mexico isnt that good) but I personally wouldnt want them thrown off by an automatic bye in qualifying. It would decrease the interest of nations in Asia, Africa, North/Central America, Western Europe/Scandinavia, Oceania. Besides, England hasnt won a World Cup in 37 years and Ronaldhino's free kick (and the idiocy of Seaman) should cost them the spot. If these teams are so great they should be easily able to qualify and if they can't then there is no reason to allow them a bid. I think that not having the teams earn the spot decreases the credibility and value of the tournament as a whole. NB