If none of the Asia-Oceania teams in '06 advance out of their groups, should they still get 5 spots ? If none of the African Nations advance should it stay at 5 If Concacaf doesn't advance a single team do they still get 3.5 spots ? It should all be dependent on what the representatives from their Confed actually do in '06 . I would rather see good Football then having geographical areas represented . What do you guys think ?
No, it shouldn't. The flaw in your approach is that the groups are extremely unbalanced this time. Look at the two groups of death ( E and C ). Of those federations you mention they have - 2 African teams ( who are considered the strongest from CAF by most ) - 1 Concacaf team - 0 AFC/OFC teams Qualifying from a group like H does not at all mean that team is better or even equal to those going home early from group C or E. Nor does it mean that team plays more attractive football.
What if Europe only qualifies 8 teams? Should they retain 15 slots? What if Conmebol only advances 2 teams? Should they retain 4 slots? Funny how you only posed the question about the stereotypical "weak" confederations, despite the fact that only 4 of the 8 quarterfinalists in '02 were from traditional soccer powerhouses. At the core of your question is a belief that soccer is still dominated by The Old Guard (Brazil, Italy, Germany, Argentina, etc.). While these powers are still powerful, they're accompanied by a slew of competitors.
Not at all , I think Europe should get less allocations if only 8 teams advance Its the only fair way to do this . I would much rather see Ireland and Colombia Peru Chile Norway then some of these . If these teams want to be here, they should Play for their spots .
My Slots for 2010 1 South Africa (Host) CAF 14,5 UEFA 3,25 CONCACAF 4,5 CONMEBOL 4,25 AFC 4,25 AFRICA 0,25 OFC Playoffs- OFC x AFC, Winners x CONMEBOL CAF x CONCACAF, Winners x UEFA
I don't think, that it should depend on this world cup, but I still think, that it's not entirely fair the way it is right now. I think teams like Denmark, Ireland or Turkey would have qualified in pretty much any other confederation, whereas Trinidat & Tobago, Togo or Saudi Arabia never would have qualified in Europe. I think quality wise Europe and also Africa (the last WCQ have proven that the AFC has much more depth than I thought it would...Cameroon probably would have had little trouble qualifying in CONCACAF for example) are a little underrepresented. So I would give each of them one more spot, so that it would look like this: UEFA 14 + 1 = 15 CAF 5 + 1 = 6 CONMEBOL 4.5 - 0.5 = 4 AFC 4.5 -0.5 = 4 CONCACAF 3.5 - 1 = 2.5 OFC 0.5
UEFA doesn't have 14 spots now. They have 13 and a spot allocated to the host nation. I don't think the current allocation should change at all. However, the playoffs should change. Would there be any problem if the playoff matches had been Bahrain vs. Spain, Trinidad and Tobago vs. Czech Rep., Turkey vs. Australia, Uruguay vs. Slovakia, Norway vs. Switzerland? It would be a mistake by FIFA to reduce African qualifiers on the eve of the first ever African World Cup. Those 5 spots plus the host allocation are essential to the development of the sport in many of those nations. Besides, in my opinion the two best teams not in the tournament are Nigeria and Cameroon, not Denmark or Turkey or Ireland, etc.
Thats actally a pretty good idea...giving the single confederations less fixed spots and more playoffs between the different confederations. E.g. Europe gets 10 spots plus lets say 8-10 1/2 spots and the same for all the others. I don't know...I wouldn't rate Nigeria that high, but then again I havent really seen them recently. Cameroon is definately up there but I wouldn't rate them higher (or lower) than those European teams mentioned.
Although I agree with you on Asia especially, the AFC president would definitely not have this. His boycott threat before the 2002 World Cup pretty much shut FIFA up. In fact, the guy even said that he wanted to add even more World Cup spots. I think at least 6 or something. Clearly the guy is delusional, but whatever. I think CONCACAF deserves 3 berths. I'd like to see Africa upped as well. However, the reasons why none of the big guys qualified in Africa was because of the nature of CAF qualifying --its TOUGH! I mean, only one team from each group. The second place teams in some of the groups were really good--Morocco, Nigeria, Cameroon. Their qualification process will have to change for the next World Cup. CONMEBOL will definitely not have only 4 in the next World Cup. As some of the other guys here said, it isnt fair to penalize a confederation because some of the teams were drawn into tough groups (in Africa's case). Paraguay, I think, is a quality side and they probably won't make it because of their rather tough group. Theyve been one of the most consistent teams from South America and they probably won't qualify. Even Uruguay, who failed to make it, probably would have qualified if it werent for their injuries. But hey, injuries happen and teams just have to deal. I think we will still see 4.5. Uruguay is still a great team...and Colombia is improving after disappearing for a few years. So yeah. It will all depend on how successful the Confederation presidents are when it comes to lobbying...or making empty threats. hah.
Actually, I don't think we'll see many changes...it's just what I thought would be right. And it's tough. Every confederation has good arguments for increasing their numbers. But I think Asia is a little overrepresented...there are a lot of countries, but only a few decent teams: Japan and Korea, Iran has yet to prove itself and maybe Australia after their move to AFC. China might have some potential, but thats still not very much. But it's a big market to promote football in, so I don't think we will see any changes there. The same thing with CONCACAF: Mexico and the US are the only ones that can compete on an international level with Costa Rica some way behind...and after that...pretty much nothing. I think CONMEBOL has actually the best quality/team average but then again there aren't a lot of countries represented by CONMEBOL (is it 10?). So with 4.5 slots (which are in fact 5 after Australia moved to AFC) for the World Cup, half the South American teams are represented. And 4 slots would still leave quality sides like Paraguay and Uruguay the chance to qualify behind Brazil and Argentina. CAF is definately the toughest confederation, so they deserve another team at the WC. Plus they have the quality to back it up. 15 teams from UEFA is dreaming, I admit. I still believe, that quality wise it would be just, but I understand that each continent needs to be properly represented. But there should definately be 14 teams from Europe in 2010 as well.
UEFA has 14 spots. They don't get an extra for hosting. The host spot came from its allocation. There wouldn't be a problem at all as far as I'm concerned. Intercontinental playoffs involving all confederations will help ensure that the allocation reflects the current strengths of each region, rather than the past strength. AFrica should stay at 5 unless they can prove that they are worth more. They haven't done that yet IMHO. I wouldn't begrudge them an extra playoff spot though, as I think all confederations should have a chance to increase their spots.
Agree to a certain extent. But have u thought that it is more difficult to show when u have so little representation in the 1st place? The fact that nearly half the teams in the competition are European means that the later stages are for the most part going to be made up of European teams. In 2010, Africa should keep it's 5 + 1 more for the host. Are you seriously going to have 51 African Nations going for 4 spots?
Based on what I think will happen: UEFA - 14.5 CAF - 6 (1 of which is host) CONCACAF - 3 CONMEBOL - 4.5 AFC - 3.5 OFC - 0.5 If two Asian teams go 0-3 this time around, spots better be taken away.
Europe won't get more than the 14 slots they have for 2006. For 2010, I see Euro - 14 CONMEBOL - 4.5 CONCACAF - 3.5 playoff with CONMEBOL Africa - 4.5 + RSA Asia, Oceania - 4.5 playoff with Africa
how about Euro - 14.5 CONMEBOL - 4.5 CONCACAF - 3.5 playoff with CONMEBOL Africa - 4 + RSA Asia, Oceania - 4.5 playoff with Euro which is almost what you had Iowa
You have both. The world cup is really two pools: -16 teams allocated to the best 16 teams. -16 or so allocated so roughly proportional to the number of teams remaining in each confederation. It's a good formula. Since most of the AFC teams are in the latter half, it's o.k. I think one of those berths is for Japan/SK and the others are geographic representation.
I think that inter continental playoffs should be a much larger feature of the allocation of spots. It would enable representation from all regions, and also allow the allocation to more closely reflect current form rather than old form. I would have 20 spots available for direct qualification from the confederations. I would allocate them as below UEFA 9 CONMEBOL 3 CAF 3 AFC 2 CONCACAF 2 OFC 0 Host 1 The remaining 12 spots would be allocated through intercontinental playoffs with the following breakdown. UEFA 9 CONMEBOL 3 CAF 4 AFC 4 CONCACAF 3 OFC 1 The only rules would be that all playoffs must be inter continental. A random draw should take place. Under a system like this all confederations could increase their allocation except for OFC. OFC has been considerably weakened with the departure of Australia and I can't see how you could justify more than the one playoff spot it has.
here is what I would like to see the regions get spots based on this formula 1 spot for host country 1 spot for each contentnent expept oceania(5 spots) 1 for each team in the top 16 in world cup (16 spots) 1 spot for each next 9 ranked countries 1 spot for match between 10 th ranked and oceania winner based on this for 2006 would have been like this south america 4 africa 3 north america 4 asia 3 europe 16 europe/oceania 1
Have Oceania do its qualifying at the same time as the first and second stages of Asian qualifying. Then enter the two best OFC teams in the final round of Asian qualifying so instead of 2 groups of 4 teams in Asia you have 2 groups of 6(the two OFC entries and 2 more Asian nations). OFC would become more of a subconfederation within AFC. Keep them at 4.5 qualifying spots, but that gives the OFC teams a fairer shot at making the WC than a playoff against South America. It would also open up an extra .5 spot to be given to another confederation. Host 1 AFC/OFC 4.5 spots CAF 5 CONCACAF 3.5 CONMEBOL 4.5 UEFA 13.5
I would keep the idea of one spot for each team through to rnd of 16. 1 spot for host 1 spot for champions 14 spots left - these should be split between each confed, but first the confederations should be made more equal. If asia and Oceania combine - 56 members Europe - 53 members Africa - 52 members Combine americas - 45 members Americas group is still a bit small but now we give 3.5 spots to each confederation. Taking results from last WC this would give us Europe - 9+3.5=(12.5 +one host) Asia - 2 + 3.5 = 5.5 Africa - 1 + 3.5 = 4.5 Americas - 4+3.5=7.5 + champion At this WC Europe has 14 (As above if they won playoff) Asia has 5 (As above - losing playoff) Africa has 5 (As above - winning playoff) Americas has 8 (As above - losing playoff) Knowing the system they use beforehand would be better than FIFA deciding (bribing) how many places are allocated
So the Champions get two spots then? The Champions would be part of the round of 16 as well, leaving 15 spots, not 14.
So much will depend on 2006 results, but the 2010 finals will be all about appeasement, after fixing the finals to go to the African confederation using the mock rotation policy, FIFA will now have to pay back European and South American favours. First I suspect that the South American and Oceania relationship to remain the same, and with Australia now in an Asian Group it will virtually guarantee South America five qualfiers. Next to avoid the possiblility of six african teams in the finals I suspect there will be one host and four direct qualifiers from the African confederation. Now for the european payback, I expect the Asian confederation the be reduced to four automatic places and the CONCACAF reduced to three spots with the European confederation awarded fifteen direct spots. FIFA will probably do this under the proviso of streamlining the event, reducing travel time between different confederations, it’s for player welfare etc. Now to some of you, this will all seem a little unfair but then again when did fairness have anything to do with FIFA and particularly when it comes to qualifying.