Comments on: The Right to Play

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By: Designer Sunglasses

Designer Sunglasses — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:45:11 +0000

A solution is to have it the other way round – ’seeded’ teams should just make the finals automatically. Countries who qualified for the last 3 tournaments or highest FIFA ranking (though obviously flawed).

FIFA win because no big teams would miss out, small countries win because they don’t get slaughtered and club teams win because there would be fewer international games.

By: Micah

Micah — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:24:10 +0000

There’s enough nations in Europe to have qualification stages like CONCACAF and Africa. But the time will come again, perhaps decades from now, when one of those minnows will pull off an upset against one the the more prosperous Euro sides. Perhaps those calling for pre-qualification just don’t want their country to be the one that is upset.

Andorra 2 England 1 in 2033. Mark your calanders!

By: boz-

boz- — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:30:33 +0000

they should definitely have prequalification – it’s common in other confederations and makes the whole process more valid

in the AFC they have a four stage qualiification process, with the stronger nations coming it at the third round and avoiding the smaller nations and the ridiculous scores

it also makes the whole process more straighforward, with fewer groups at each stage with even numbers of teams and avoids strange playoff situations like the second round second place ranking thing that UEFA has

if UEFA wants to free up the calender prequalification for smaller teams should be the first thing they do

By: LLD

LLD — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Another two arguments for the diddy teams to participate:

1. They are often great places to visit (I’ve been to Liechtenstein and it’s great)
2. With the exception of the Faroes they are all fully fledged sovereign states… unlike England (and the other home nations).

By: Tom Dunmore

Tom Dunmore — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:08:49 +0000

Automatic qualifying for some teams is a tough one, as that build up of competitive matches two years ahead of time can be important to team-building compared to a stream of friendlies. Not to mention revenue for TV rights for the qualifiers — my guess is that played in Fifa’s thinking as much as France’s poor performance when they changed the rules for the reigning champion and forced them to qualify.

By: Lenses

Lenses — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:21:21 +0000

They used to have the World Cup winner automatically qualify for the next World Cup, but stopped it when, in 2002, France (the 1998 WC champion, AND the Euro 2000 winner) couldn’t even score 1 goal in the tournament, and was eliminated in the group stages.

The fairest way would be the way it is now

By: Michal

Michal — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:41:11 +0000

I always used to think that that’s what qualifiers are for – to determine which country is where in the footballing world. I can remember Poland getting our record 10:0 in history against San Marino this year, but I also rememeber almost being held by the same San Marino and only winning after a shameful hand-goal some time ago. I can easily remember Faroe Islands almost holding Germany to a draw and getting beaten in extra time. Stories like these (well, not the one with Poland in it ) make up for 50% of football’s beauty and whoever thinks different should think again. It’s not always going to be a captivating clash of titans, even if the everybody* would earn some extra cash. And thank God!

* – meaning the rich getting richer at the smaller ones’ expense.

By: Joe W

Joe W — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:04:58 +0000

It’s ridiculous to think small teams should have to pre-qualify.

The point of qualifying is to see who’s worth a place in the finals. Pre-qualifying would be passing an objective judgement on a team.

FIFA win because no big teams would miss out, small countries win because they don’t get slaughtered and club teams win because there would be fewer international games.