Where do the FIFA Confederations sit against each other?

I think people don't take CONCACAF seriously enough. The final qualifying group (the hex) much more difficult than any Asian qualifying stage and harder than many of the European qualifying goups. The current hex consists of USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and T&T. The first four could beat probably beat any AFC team and several Euro teams. CONCACAF definitely deserves the 3.5 spots.

Nice discussion article I would say that AFC will be protected because as some say, it is really 2 Confederations (West and East) rolled into one as it is. It is in Footballs interest to maintain a strong interest in football, even if teams like Saudi Arabia get thrashed at the WC 8-0 because there is so much economic power within Aisa, in the West you have the Oil States of the Middle East, and in the East you have rising China as well as strong Economic powers such as Japan and South Korea aren't anything to sniff at economically. The issue here of course is that AFC has a bit of a battle to channel that power into its own leagues, like domestic national leagues + own Cofederation (Asian) Cup, whereas as can be seen with EPL game 39, there are some elements within Europe that are trying to tap into that for Business reasons. So even though CAF are coming up strongly in playing terms and the cream in particular are probably stronger than the cream of Asia, AFC can pretty much consider itself fairly safe seeing as their economic power/potential can't match that of the AF - look at it from this perspective, there are a number of AFC teams capable of practically hosting the World Cup whereas the same can't quite be said of CAF countries, South Africa is the most practical with some Rugby stadiums in place already and that has faced a lot of problems. There is a good reason why CWC is being held within Asia With regards to CAF strengthening football wise, it would be CONCACAF who should be worried, as the article says Mexico are weakening, the USA team which is the strongest has a lot of potential power and MLS is improving thanks to boutique stadiums and developing its own niche, but the U.S economic power isn't really channelled into football at all. Good point, AFC and Australia need eachother as much as the other, as an Australian football fan the move into AFC has been undescribably fantastic, and naturally they will do well by having something of a bridge between Asia and Europe, having a team ranked 16 and in the mix will be a stabiliser of prestige, especially if we can get to knockout round again or at least one of the other Asian teams but personally I think the 2nd tier of Asia is catching up to the 1st tier with it being a mix of second tier catching up and Saudi Arabia beginning to feel the impact of sacking their coach all the time and the instability and lack of continuity it brings. But Australia generally, once it puts its focus into football seriously, will become somewhat competitive and powerful as we have the potential to match it with European nations, and AFC/Asia will need that, as well as our practical sporting knowledge that will come in handy in developing the quality of competitions within the AFC region and if AFC can focus much more opf its raw power into its own competitions and have them as half proper comps, it can become quite strong, to the point where it can even feasibly challenge the Copa Libertadores in terms of professional organisation and playing out of modern Stadiums if not in terms of fan passion and skill level which will means it will have something approaching respectability The mix of places for World Cups is about right, maybe give CONCACAFS half place to CAF or something

Rankings might provide future historians with a useful reference point, but as a practical exercise, they're pretty useless. Case in point was Serena Williams & the tennis female rankings. Serena rightly places winning majors above all other tournaments. In team sports, performances in the big ones - FIFA WC; Euro Cup; Asian Cup; Confederations Cup; etc, these are the ones that count.

Luckily spots at World Cups are given on financial and not just footballing considerations. The AFC/OFC get 5 because revenue wise the region is only behind UEFA. Likewise CONCANCAF gets 3.5 whilst the much stronger CONEMBOL gets 4.5 even all the 10 teams in CONEMBOL would usually beat any team in CONCACAF other than Mexico & US. However its important to note that 40 years ago the same applied to most UEFA countries and the top team in CAF. I think FIFA deserve credit for their foresight in forever ensuring the World Cup is a global event. Long before Bledisloe games in Hong Kong and AFL teams in Sydney teams like Zambia, North Korea, Cuba & Dutch East Indies were allowed to go to the World Cup. They were usually thrashed but it added to the competition and allowed football to grow as it has.

I think these stats show the advantage of home ground advantage more than anything. The European teams always do well in Europe but the cup is much more open when the event is hosted outside of Europe. Those stats should look different after world cups in Africa and one in South America. European teams still did well in 2002 but the whole event felt much more open. Luckily the spots don’t seem to be just determined on performance though or else Asia would have 0.5 spots because barring the 2002 world cup the teams have done nothing much at all. Australia made it out of the group stage but the only victory of the campaign was against AFC’s Japan. Yet not giving Asia 4.5 would be a big hinderance to development as the area is booming. Japan and Korea play great football and there are massive commercial markets there. I think it does show the AFC now needs Australia to maintain there number of spots. Although some of the Asian teams seem to be disappointed we weren’t just adding a free spot for them and we actually qualified I think it would be very hard for Asia to justify keeping a full spot if Australia were removed …we just have to keep on qualifying for the next couple of campaigns lest they take the opportunity to boot us. After that we should be fairly well integrated into the AFC with our coaches and players spread all over the place and our A league teams (with a couple of Asian players in each) contributing to the allure of the Asian Champions League. I think North America deserves 3 spots still. T&T got there by winning a playoff against AFC’s Bahrain so fair play to them. Canada is like Australia and New Zealand still developing. Yes in the short term the results might not be there but realistically the only confederation that is likely to receive more spots than there worth because of political muscle is Asia and that’s ours home so power to us J

If spots were allocated on ability then I think the WC would only contain teams from CONMEBOL, UEFA and maybe a couple from Africa. It is a WORLD Cup though so it is fair that all continents get represented. Having a good spread of teams from all continents enables different styles of teams to go up against each other. Personally I think CONCACAF and Asia/Ocenia may provide too many really weak sides and could lose places and give more to Africa or CONMEBOL. The African sides are often ill disciplined but very skillful. I expect teams from the other continents may be a little scared when drawn against an African side. Unfortunately it is situation where it is going to be impossible to keep everyone happy. Good article.

CONCACAF has turned into an absolute joke since Mexico has started to play their worst football ever. When Mexico were at their peak, it was still hard for CONCACAF to justify having 3.5 WC places when only two nations were really up to the quality of playing in a world cup. Now there is only one country worthy of playing in the world cup. One spot should be transferred from CONCACAF to CAF. 2.5 is more than enough for CONCACAF. The US and Mexico can have their spot assured and the rest can fight it out for the playoff spot. The world cup can't afford for the likes of Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon or Egypt to miss out on the world cup at the expense of Trinidad and Tobago or Jamaica