O/T (sort of) Uruguay - Socceroos 1st Leg

[captainmorganrum]

South America have too many teams competing. They have 4 (+ a playoff) qualifiers and only 9 nations compete. It's a joke. I think 3 + a playoff team would be fairer. Concacaf are the other region over-represented. I think they get 4 teams where 3 would be fairer.

I can't helping thinking Concacaf & South America should merge their qualifying process, and Oceania should be completely disbanded and integrated into Asia. Oceania is unbelievably badly organised and Australia has finally had enough.

It's all FIFA politics though - Blatters power base lies in the fact that it is "one country / one vote" so by beefing up the representation in Asia and CONCACAF he rewards them for voting for them (as well as 'bribing' them in the form of the Goal Project.
His CONCACAF henchman Jack Warner has a lot to answer for.

Why aren't we moving towards World Qualifying groups?
We should be aiming for the best 32 teams in the World regardless of their location - the World Cup should be the pinnacle of the world game - but instead we get a poor German team able to tonk a woeful Saudi Arabian side.

This system would probably favour the better teams in weak conferences (South Korea, Japan, Australia etc) but would probably see 5 South American and 20 European sides in the final 32 - which is why it is completely unpalatable for FIFA and its vested interests!

 

[Simster]

I don't quite agree with you. IMO, the WC needs to be a trade off between the world's strongest teams and a vehicle for the development of the game in weaker nations.

Yes the Saudi/Germany game was embarrassing because the Saudis just couldn't cope with an arial threat. But the WC is the only place to find that out in a competitive environment and the Saudis won't make that mistake again.