Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo reacts after the drawn World Cup group 1 qualifying soccer match against Denmark at Parken in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday Sept. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Tariq Mikkel Khan/POLFOTO)
New Zealand’s qualification to the World Cup has brought up questions about whether they actually deserved a spot. This isn’t the first time where seemingly weak sides are questioned for their value to the World Cup.
It’s one of the perennial questions that is asked in every World Cup. Is the process meritocratic? Do sides that qualify deserve to be there over sides that missed out?
To me, it’s always been a bother that the determination of how many sides from each Confederation make the World Cup are done by politicians instead of teams earning it from the pitch.
This is the reason why there will always be mumbling that this Confederation deserves more spots or this Confederation should have less teams at the World Cup.
I believe the root of this problem is that World Cup qualification is segregated between Confederations. I don’t believe it’s a good idea that, to qualify to the World Cup, you only have to beat teams from your own region with the exception of the few Intercontinental Playoffs.
It’s such a shame that aside from the World Cup we don’t play against teams outside our Confederation in a competitive match.
So here I’ll present a new World Cup qualifying system that is radically different to the current system. In this system, no one can complain that their Confederation had too little, or not enough teams at the World Cup.
I will admit that I did not invent this idea. It was discussed on the Roar years ago and worked on by bloggers like Pippinu and others.
But there was never an article written about it, despite numerous suggestion that someone should do it.
The frst requirement is that there are only Four Confederations. So it will be the Americans, Europe, Africa and the Asian Pacific.
Second, we merge the Continental Championships with World Cup Qualifications.
Each Confederation will have their continental tournament with 16 teams, and whoever does not qualify to the Continental Championship gets eliminated from the World Cup early.
Third, the semi finalist of each continent will qualify directly to the World Cup. This means that it’s still a World Cup by ensuring that each Confederation has a minimum of 4 teams.
However, for the team that finishes 5th to 16th, they will go to the second round of World Cup qualifications.
So the 48 nations remaining from the four different Confederations are now allocated to 8 groups with 6 teams in them. Each group will not contain more then 2 teams from the same Confederation.
They will play home and away, and the top team of each group and the Top 7 second place team will qualify to the World Cup.
The 16 automatic qualifiers are placed in group of 4 to determine the top 7 seeds to ensure they get match practice before the World Cup.
I think despite any logistical issues, this will be a fairer and meritocratic system.
A Confederation could have as low as 4 teams in the World Cup to up to 17 (if the host was from that Confederation). So no Confederation can complain that they didn’t get enough spots than they deserve as they end up playing against teams from each Confederation to get there.
This will also finally end any debate about the relative strength of each Confederation.
Instead of one side boasting that their region is superior to other, they actually have to go out on the pitch and prove it. This can either confirm the European/South American dominance in world football, or it can give opportunities for lesser known countries from less fashionable regions to upstage and break the European/South American hegemony.
We can finally have a World Cup where we can’t really question the 32 teams that qualified there.
If you guys are not happy with this system, feel free to post up your own alternative non-segregated World Cup Qualifying system.
dasilva
Roar Guru
I'm not too sure about the point you are making hiere Cambodia currently plays about 5 competitive matches every 4 years now anyway (not including the South East Asian games). 3 in terms of qualification ot the AFC challenge cup and about 2 in the WCQ. So really you are just taking away about 2 games from their itinerary. THis can be made up at the beginning of the 4 year cycle I'm quite sure if there is turning the continental championship into a pseudo WCQ the AFC will restructure the qualifying process to make it more intensive to qualify to the Asia Cup and will make up the loss of games for Cambodia in the beginning. I also think that turning the Asia cup in to a pseudo WCQ will actually increase the prestige of the Asia Cup more then anything else. There will
dasilva
Roar Guru
Thanks Rock Lobster I seriously doubt that Europeans are good enough to get 16 spots in the World Cup. If a side such as greece is poolled in the same group as Paraguay, Iran, Egypt etc. I will be betting that Greece will be the one that will miss out. My suspicion is that I believe the smaller regions are better then suspected and would trouble all the sides. It will be a great hypothetical scenario. how would European sides handling travelling to middle east in 40 degree heat to play against iraq, kuwait How would they fair travelling to ecuador have to play in high altitude with little climatisation. Europeans teams will have a far more difficult WCQ then they normally experience back in Europe. I suspect that if this system is in place it would show that 13 is about right or maybe less. Remember this, no european sides has ever won the world cup outside europes. When it comes to travelling and handling conditions, europeans are softies.
Nam Turk
Guest
We have the Euro tournament for us all to celebrate the poor, little nations that miss out on the World Cup because of big bullies like New Zealand.
albe
Guest
did u guys see the 'WHITE POWER' sign being held up at the NZ game on saturday? caught a quick glimpse in a crowd shot but they cut away pretty fast !!! hope they don't take that one with em to SA
jimbo
Guest
I think Guus would be more valuable to our Quest for the Holy WC Grail as a central stiker - with Viduka unlikely and Aussie Scott unable to hit the side of a Dutch milking shed - Guus would be ideal. Pimbo could still be the manager and Guus helps out Lucas with the tactics while he is on the field. Pair up Guus the Great with Jesus and you've got a WC winning striking pair up front.
Shahsan
Guest
Good thinking, dasilva, but like all sensible ideas, you know you have no chance of it ever being implemented. In an ideal world, there would be a system like yours -- maybe not exactly like it, but something close -- so that we have the best 32 teams in the world and not just 32 representatives from all the regions of the world. If we do go with your system, i would go with top TWO from each of the four regions, for I think Asia/Oceania would be overrepresented with 4. After that, let the cards fall where they may. I suspect your main objectors would be the offcials of the lesser, underperforming regions, especially the likes of Jack Warner and the trough dwellers in the FIFA family, whose days at the World Cup party could be numbered. Your other objectors would be the greenies, of course -- imagine all the extra cross-continental flights!
dasilva
Guest
Agree with that Also because of that. Guus will not accept the job Guus and Pim are probably friends Guus wouldn't backstab his mate wouldn't he as this is what returning to the socceroos will mean.
Norm
Guest
Midfielder I'm sure Pim would NOT be happy to hand over to Guus or anyone else.
Midfielder
Guest
KB & Norm Just cannot see how Pim would be happy to hand over to Guus as Fozzie implies...and remember in ACTUAL CURRENT FACTS wants to replace the guy that qualified us top of our group, above Japan, with someone who failed to get Russia through after a playoff with Slovenia? Must be Fozzia is in love..a song for Fozzie just for Guus .......... Fozzie Fozzie Fozzie's in Love ( if you are old enough to remember this song change Tammy to Fozzie) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQqSdx-uljA
AndyRoo
Guest
They don't call him aussie gus for nothing..... like all good ausies he will forget his ruski friends and sign for Manche$ter city. taught Lucas everything he noes and good on him :)
Midfielder
Guest
KB & Norm Foozie wants Guus ... http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-sport/grab-guus-for-socceroos-foster-20091119-iokx.html
dasilva
Guest
It's times like this that make me wish we have this system so we can prove you wrong.
KB
Guest
I agree, it could be tricky and totally misunderstood ... I hope not, it would be a travesty
dasilva
Guest
Fair enough That your biggest issues is with cutting the number of confederation down. I admit that's the biggest issue in doing this In any case, one of the biggest influence that the fifa executive have is how many spots does a nation have at the world cup. This would take that decision out of hte hands of the fifa board and put it into the players on the pitch. Therefore the FIFA executive does actually lose some of its power. Honestly I don't really see a big deal with merging. However my main point of this article is more about the need of confederation playing each other in competitive matches rather then cutting the confederation down. If you want an alternative system with no merger between north and south america 20 automatic qualifiers top 4 from the 5 confederation, .48 teams split in 8 groups of 6 in the 2nd round qualifiers (the Americans allocation will have 6 CONMEBOL and 6 CONCACAF). The top team of each group qualifies. 2nd place team will play off. There you go, each confederation guarantee 4 places at the world cup. The rest is up for grabs and the europeans will be really pissed with this arrangement as it's quite likely they'll get less spots for the world cup. no mergers between CONCACAF and CONMEBOL. Is that better?
KB
Guest
I agree with what you said about Europe... It has lost a lot of quality countries, someone at FIFA should review the real strengh of it...
Midfielder
Guest
Das KN & Norm Having Guus back .....HHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm interesting and not a stuipd idea... maybe sack Arnold Out at the same time... Das well tho out article and well written as always ... I think it is just about right now with two exceptions... The winner in Oceania should go to the play offs in Asia... North Amercia get one less spot and Europe loose half a spot... I think that Europe iis way over rated and outside the top 12 or so sides they are ordinary ... they have 54 sides of which 30 are piss poor and another 12 or so not that good ....It's about time someone had a long hard look at Europe ...
midfield general
Guest
I wonder how the nickname `All Whites' will be received by South Africans....I know skin colour is the last thing Kiwis are implying here but may not be the case in some other places in the world. You can't order a long black in the US, for example.
KB
Guest
Das, I think you just answered your own thoughts ... and that's why it wouldn't come to pass ;)
KB
Guest
In fact he would probably do it for nix (no pun intended)
KB
Guest
Norm, you have me now seriously thinking about Guss’s position... He's a manager who doesn’t usually like to go over old ground.... However, if an offer came in from the NZ All Whites... That may definitely motivate him, and my bet would be he would take it up...