FIFA shuffles around Football World Cup berths

[Atahualpa]

Originally posted by Sava
FIFA IS BLASPHEMY... ITS SOCCER DAMMIT!

Actually its called "Fußball"

[C0ckney]

could you explain to me why exactly it is so important to have more teams in the world cup?

how did letting a team like saudi in damage the world cup? well although the thinngs you listed are positive (well not the thing about 8-0 but about the arab supporters anyway), it made the group much, much less of a competition. look at england's group in 2002, sweden, argentina and nigeria, all pretty competant and respectable teams, while there might have been favorites for who was to go through there was a real competition for the two qualification spots. in germany's group there wasn't, it wasn't a case that any team could go through, quite the opposite in fact, it was as good as giving germany a by to the second round. that is why it is bad.

[yavoon]

Originally posted by C0ckney
could you explain to me why exactly it is so important to have more teams in the world cup?

how did letting a team like saudi in damage the world cup? well although the thinngs you listed are positive (well not the thing about 8-0 but about the arab supporters anyway), it made the group much, much less of a competition. look at england's group in 2002, sweden, argentina and nigeria, all pretty competant and respectable teams, while there might have been favorites for who was to go through there was a real competition for the two qualification spots. in germany's group there wasn't, it wasn't a case that any team could go through, quite the opposite in fact, it was as good as giving germany a by to the second round. that is why it is bad.

so ur upset germany had an easier road to the second round? this is always going to happen. there will always be weak groups and strong groups. I think one thing u severely lack perspective on is how important it is for a relatively unknown nation to make a worldcup appearance and how much they get hyped for that. it is amazingly good for soccer everytime south korea/japan/saudi arabia appear in the worldcup, it turns the entire nation into a frenzy. sure sometimes the teams they field aren't as competitive as snobs in europe like. but FIFA is smart enough to realize that fielding 20 teams from europe is detrimental to soccer.

while giving other nations births is an amazing bonus and catalyst for the proliferation of global soccer.

[C0ckney]

i have no problem with weak groups and strong groups, but this went beyond that, it was, in effect giving germany a by to the second round. it was like my local pub team playing manchester united.

not that i'm against giving other nations a chance, but that can't be at the expense of the competitivness of the...errr...competition.

[yavoon]

Originally posted by C0ckney
i have no problem with weak groups and strong groups, but this went beyond that, it was, in effect giving germany a by to the second round. it was like my local pub team playing manchester united.

not that i'm against giving other nations a chance, but that can't be at the expense of the competitivness of the...errr...competition.

FIFA disagrees. FIFA has this enormous stage that is the worldcup. and uses that stage to promote soccer globally. one of the ways(and by far one of the most effective) is to let newer/weaker countries enter. I'm sorry u disagree w/ that. I'm sure if u ran it there would be 25 european teams and 7 south american. but thats just not how it is.

[C0ckney]

well i can see this is going to be worthwhile...

off to bed anyway

[Imran Siddiqui]

it would unreasonable to expect the FA, and other european leagues to change their entire program for the world cup

Well the NHL does it for Olympic Hockey .

16 teams from europe
8 from south america
3 from central america
2 from asia
2 from africa
1 from north america

Who's in North America then? Just US and Canada? Mexico and the US, who are both considered North America are much better than any team in 'Central America'.

2 from Africa is too harsh as well... make it more. They have some really good sides, such as Nigeria, Cameroon, Morocco, etc.

[yavoon]

Originally posted by C0ckney
well i can see this is going to be worthwhile...

off to bed anyway

yes it is hard to get europeans to realize many things. much less such bold and brash concepts as actively trying to proflierate soccer using the world cup. it just all goes back to one thing. to europeans sports aren't changable, touchable in anyway. to americans they are.

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by yavoon


FIFA disagrees. FIFA has this enormous stage that is the worldcup. and uses that stage to promote soccer globally. one of the ways(and by far one of the most effective) is to let newer/weaker countries enter. I'm sorry u disagree w/ that. I'm sure if u ran it there would be 25 european teams and 7 south american. but thats just not how it is.

correct, it's the only way to encourage countries to develop

As for the NFL and the NBA.....

[Imran Siddiqui]

Please. FIFA devides itself into confederations. the only way to know which were the 32 best teams would be to have al eams play all other teams all the time, which means frican teams go to Europe to pay, Europeans teams go to South America to play, so forth and so on.

Correct. To make it the 'best in the world' would be a nightmare qualification run.

not that i'm against giving other nations a chance, but that can't be at the expense of the competitivness of the...errr...competition.

The Germany / Saudi thing was definetly an outlier. Sometimes you'll have weak sides sneak in by some madness, when more deserving teams are left out in their confederation... such as Poland going to the WC, but Holland left out. It happens.

My division would be:

15 Europe
5 South America
3 North America
4 Africa
3 Asia/Oceania
1 - Asia/Oceania 4 v. Africa 5
1 - North America 4 v. South America 6

So Europe gets one team less than half (but that's all), but there is ample amount of diversity.

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by yavoon
it just all goes back to one thing. to europeans sports aren't changable, touchable in anyway. to americans they are.

I know this is a sweeping statement to say the least, but the reason Americans think FOOTBALL rules are easily changeable is that you don't really understand the game and it's nuances

[reds4ever]

Imran, having said that..;O)

[Imran Siddiqui]

As for the NFL and the NBA.....

Is there a reason you have to diss American sports?

Oh, and we do understand the game and its nuances, but American sports have had some drastic changes (Basketball added the 3 point line, AmiFootball moved the endposts to the back of the endzone, etc), and you can be sure we know the nuances of them.

[yavoon]

Originally posted by reds4ever


I know this is a sweeping statement to say the least, but the reason Americans think FOOTBALL rules are easily changeable is that you don't really understand the game and it's nuances

we've also changed lots of things about baseball. our national past time. we've tightened the strike zone, lowered the mound, made the parks smaller, brought in the DH.

we are much more accepting of change we perceive as good.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Ugh... DH sucks! So do smaller parks .

I'm a fan of increasing the strike zone, having larger parks (like Comerca or Pac Bell), eliminating the DH.