well i am not happy with it! I think there ought to be two very serious things done... especially as countries like Uruguay and spain seem to onyl use these for "glamour" or in other words pay days in qatar or abu dabi. 1. high time to call enough is enough with the crap semi pro teams and so that per quali thing. 2. there are simply a stupid amount of games PERIOD. i favour moving these to TWO windows only, on being the summer after seasons are completed and the other being POST (not before, not during) CL group stages. finally in all REALITY. san Marino playing in a small group of 4 with the eventual winners getting a shot at a real qualification is zero harm... guess what the F guys. look aorund concacaf and even austrilasia.. the model is well established. who gives a toss about painters form the faroes, San Marino or Andorra or Lichtenstein... COME ON!
Sorry MITO it's the World Cup not The World minus teams that don't have professional teams Cup. What if there are three tiers, one for SM and the like one for England Ireland N Ireland and the other also rans who don't have a chance and one for Brazil Spain Italy Germany and so on? You wouldn't be able to see the UK sky with the amount of feathers spit. When will it end, how do we feel about the top 6 PL teams going into a Euro super league cos so many PL games are forgone conclusions before a ball is kicked. Why stop there even, have a super super league while were at it, there are and always have been those who think they are a cut above the rest and want to have their own tree house. Get fkn over yourselves, the ONLY reason they are where they are is cos there is 30,000 of them and no money to pump up in No TV wealth to avail of. Some of the views on here are so short sighted specsavers could not save them. If England had one game left and needed to win it by 4 0 to qualify and it was San Marino, you'd be rubbing your ****ing hands and anyone saying different is a fooqin liar.
nope... they would get their chance to qualify for the tournament the SAME WAY half the pacific and cariibian etc got. did you not read what i wrote? this is common already! AND you are missing the point. there is a GROSS discrepancy between england etc and andorra. sorry but there is! The rules already discount results v the bottom team in the table don't they... the authorities already know its a turkey shoot but for the ridiculous reason that these countries have votes and could hurt incumbent bribe takers they are let run around europe losing to all and sundry. Oh and you'd better get used to the idea of a euro league. tell you what you go support the san marino team for a while and enjoy! the rest of us will live in the real world
I read your post, I did not agree, nor did I say to you, did YOU not read MY post. My post MY post. They are not in that group of countries though are they. And you lot want to shift them in there because you are not entertained by the game, it's that simple, this is what it is all about, you lot. Nothing to do with SM or fairness or anything else. To pretend it is for the good on world football
We are not saying eradicate them all together, they will get their chance to qualify by playing teams around their level. Giving them a better chance to win games which would imo be better for them. You see relegation teams beating the top of the table quite often (Wolves, Blackburn last year). The difference between the top and the bottom in the PL is not as great as the top and bottom teams in Europe at international level. I'm not talking about a divide as great as splitting the PL apart, more like the existing system we have across the football league at the moment. Why not argue for the FA Cup to have PL teams from the start? Same with the league cup. The conference is separate from the football league for a reason. It's not short sighted at all, saying 'get rid of San arino etc all together' is short sighted I agree. I would be rubbing my hands together more if we had a smaller group of better teams playing for a place at the finals, I believe there will be more chance of an epic final fixture.
Who gives a **** about cricket, England are playing every week of the year these days and it's lost all meaning.
I wouldn't. And I'm not lying. Having these teams in the competition is a complete waste of everyone's time, imo.
This isn't about England vs San Marino, it's about NOT HAVING an England vs San Marino and less England games. Maybe cricket should look at doing the same thing.
On the latter point, you may well be right. They appear burned out. They whitewashed India in India (who have just whitewashed the convicts), but New Zealand, who we should be battering, look like they're poised to win the series. Anyway. Enough of that.
They're not in the competition. This is the qualifying round. They'll be out before the actual world cup. Or perhaps you'd like to be put in a group with Spain, Italy and Germany? While the rest of us Europeans face Andorra and San Marino? I might not mind that actually.
For me one of the main attractions of international football is that any country can take part. Regardless of budget, population or ability in their team. Its great seeing a country like Uruguay (3m population) winning the Copa America against countries like Argentina (40m) & Brazil (196m). Or a country like Greece (11m population) winning the Euros. And as for San Marino having to go through an extra qualifying stage just because they always get battered is rubbish. Like Spain, Italy, Germany, France etc saying England should go through an extra group stage in the Euros because they've never won it??
Whats to say a minor footballing country doesn't somehow produce two or three quality players? They would have suddenly become a much better side and would no doubt claim the rankings. We see players play for other nations all the time nowadays so would those players play for that country if they had to face qualifying type games first?
