World Cup 2022 qualifiers

[DFF]

At what point do Hungary lose the rights to have any fans at their games until they take actual action? 

[gunnar hendershow]

Sounds like FIFA is sending out communication to all member nations they plan to make the World Cup an every 2 years affair.

[Adam]

I can genuinely see me being done with football within the next few years. It's all trending in the wrong direction for me.

[DFF]

Gonna get messy I think. No one beyond FIFA seems to want it. Not the national leagues, not the continental organisations, not the IOC (lol), not the players, nor the fans. 

[Adam]

1 minute ago, DFF said:

Gonna get messy I think. No one beyond FIFA seems to want it. Not the national leagues, not the continental organisations, not the IOC (lol), not the players, nor the fans. 

Do the stakeholders want it though?

[gunnar hendershow]

I'm sure FIFA know that nobody wants it and know that they can still make it happen by offering a ton of concessions and counting on the multitude of smaller confederations to help make up the gap in voting support.

[Malenko]

4 minutes ago, damshow said:

I'm sure FIFA know that nobody wants it and know that they can still make it happen by offering a ton of concessions and counting on the multitude of smaller confederations to help make up the gap in voting support.

Not saying it won't go ahead but most smaller confederations aren't recognized by FIFA and won't have any saying in this. Unless you actually meant CONCACAF, AFC, CAF and/or OFC. Unless you meant something else?

[gunnar hendershow]

11 minutes ago, Malenko said:

Not saying it won't go ahead but most smaller confederations aren't recognized by FIFA and won't have any saying in this. Unless you actually meant CONCACAF, AFC, CAF and/or OFC. Unless you meant something else?

I meant those ones primarily. I messed up by meaning the smaller nations in those confederations. I believe they've been instrumental in Infantino's support, and helping push through changes. But I could always be getting tabloid mixed up with reality.

[The Lusophone]

37 minutes ago, DFF said:

Gonna get messy I think. No one beyond FIFA seems to want it. Not the national leagues, not the continental organisations, not the IOC (lol), not the players, nor the fans. 

Plenty of the continental organisations do seem to want it though. UEFA and COMNEBOL are against, but CAF is in favour, the proposal is coming from figures high up in the AFC and CONCACAF released a thinly veiled statement directed at UEFA urging them to "listen to all stances and proposals".

[The Kraig]

I hate how football (and business in general) has ruined football. I am weirdly from the town that had the first ever shirt sponsor, so, our apologies.

I'd maybe support a differently formatted 'World Cup' inbetween the main World Cup. Like a straight knock-out tournament, no seeds. Would be highly entertaining, in my opinion.

[Naitch]

Not interested in a World Cup every two years as I quite like the Euros. Might as well just declare football over at the end of 2022 at this point.

[Lineker]

 

[Colly]

Pepe just got Pepe'd. Second yellow for basically nowt but the guy went down holding his face. Zero sympathy.

[The Kraig]

All I can say is that while Scotland were impressive, Craig Gordon played such an important role in not letting doubt and fear take over the team. World Cup play-offs here we go!

In other news, OFC plan to have a separate qualification tournament in March in Qatar due to delays in getting their qualifiers selected thanks to COVID. Bizarre.

[gunnar hendershow]

Dos a cero!

[Bobfoc]

4 hours ago, The Kraig said:

In other news, OFC plan to have a separate qualification tournament in March in Qatar due to delays in getting their qualifiers selected thanks to COVID. Bizarre.

They might as well just cancel the qualifiers and just accept that New Zealand were obviously going to come through anyway. It's still nice to cling to the possibility of New Caledonia making it, though.

[The Kraig]

10 hours ago, Bobfoc said:

They might as well just cancel the qualifiers and just accept that New Zealand were obviously going to come through anyway. It's still nice to cling to the possibility of New Caledonia making it, though.

Tahiti all the way! Or the Solomon Islands! Let's go!

For clarity's sake, they haven't even said which nations are travelling out to Qatar so it may be quite a small thing.

In other news, Brazil have qualified to join Germany and Denmark.

[Cymbols]

Neco Williams was immense tonight, best I think I’ve ever seen him play. Nice to win so convincingly, and awesome that Ben Davies finally got himself a goal, at the 68th time of asking. On his next cap would’ve been nicer, but it happens.

[The Kraig]

Wales whipping Belarus is very impressive.

After tonight, France and Belgium have formally qualified.

[Gorka]

3 hours ago, Cymbols said:

Neco Williams was immense tonight, best I think I’ve ever seen him play. Nice to win so convincingly, and awesome that Ben Davies finally got himself a goal, at the 68th time of asking. On his next cap would’ve been nicer, but it happens.

Neco is genuinely great going forward with us, absolute bags of energy - just really really really really needs to work on his defensive game.

First time Wales have scored five goals in a qualifier in 14 years apparently, so we better savour it.