TCO Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 Yeah they've ruined the World Cup now. I hope we qualify for the 2018 one because I really don't care after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baddar Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 Meh, I get both sides of this. The format is a bit shit but I do understand the argument of wanting new teams to be involved, but the draw will be heavily focused on seeding so you'll get groups like Germany, Russia and Kuwait so the 3rd team in most, if not all groups will have no chance of progressing anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCO Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 12 minutes ago, Baddar said: Meh, I get both sides of this. The format is a bit shit but I do understand the argument of wanting new teams to be involved, but the draw will be heavily focused on seeding so you'll get groups like Germany, Russia and Kuwait so the 3rd team in most, if not all groups will have no chance of progressing anyway. If a team were good enough they'd qualify, it's not a charity. It's the pinacle of football and now we get to see Germany and Spain beat the living piss out of a mickey mouse Asian country in a 3 team group because a bunch of greedy dickheads want another 0 in their bank account. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slogger Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 3 hours ago, Kaney said: Finally a chance for us to qualify My initial response was "Well Atleast Scotland, Canada and New Zealand will qualify now" Shit let's just have the Commonwealth start our own World Cup (yes, with blackjack and hookers) and do away with this FIFA nonsense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDK Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 1 hour ago, Davidmarrio said: See I'd love that. Either stick with seeding and splitting the teams into two brackets of 32 or just go fuck it, you can draw anyone at any time. Germany vs Spain in the very first round. I would love that as well. Fuck the seedings, you might end up with some great matches. I'd love it to be done as an FA Cup draw, televised live with a guest celebrity or something. First draw you get President Obama, next round draw The Pope comes out or something. 15 minutes ago, Slogger said: My initial response was "Well Atleast Scotland, Canada and New Zealand will qualify now" Shit let's just have the Commonwealth start our own World Cup (yes, with blackjack and hookers) and do away with this FIFA nonsense. That would be great fun to have inbetween international tournaments even if it was under23's or something. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted January 10, 2017 Admin Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 56 minutes ago, Slogger said: My initial response was "Well Atleast Scotland, Canada and New Zealand will qualify now" Shit let's just have the Commonwealth start our own World Cup (yes, with blackjack and hookers) and do away with this FIFA nonsense. You say Canada but there is some talk of merging the North and South American qualifying sections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slogger Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 8 minutes ago, Lineker said: You say Canada but there is some talk of merging the North and South American qualifying sections. Which would leave the US and like 12 South American teams? That Commonwealth U23s Cup idea sounds like a goer actually... Wait doesn't the Comm Games have a soccer tournament? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazz Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 I was listening to the football coverage on Radio 5 on the way back from the gym and they were discussing this and it was all just really Eurocentric and xenophobic. Moaning that 'one in four' teams would qualify and totally disregarding that smaller confederations are woefully under represented (ie. Europe, 55 countries, 14 qualifiers. Africa, 56 countries, 5 qualifiers. Asia, 47 countries, 4 qualifiers). To play Devil's advocate, the only way you're going to expand and improve the game into regions like Asia, Africa and Oceania is to give them more opportunities to qualify and in turn, give them more opportunities to play against big teams. If a better chance of qualifying for the World Cup helps national FA's get more government funding, which leads to more kids playing the game, that can only be a good thing for the long term benefit of a lot of emerging nations. For example, look at African and Asian countries in the last 30 years, they've gone from whipping boys to competitive and we've seen a massive influx of quality players from those regions into the big leagues, an even more recent example in another sport would be the rapid improvement of Bangladesh as a test Cricket playing nation. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDK Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 And less teams from South America. Percentage wise they take the piss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidMarrio Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 As I said before I'm not against the idea of expanding and I do think currently Europe especially and South America take up a fair chunk of the 32 teams in a supposedly global tournament. Just the idea of 3 teams group stages is ridiculous. For examlle one team will have finished their group matches before the other two teams have.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cymbols Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 Yeah the head of the Scottish FA or something seemed really pleased about it. But it seems as though Europe will only get maybe three more slots, so it's probably not going to help them at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCO Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 If they wanted to give the other continents are a fair crack then they should assign more .5 places. Let all the 2nd place European teams face a two legged play-offs against the Asian, African and Oceania teams rather than each other. Like we did in 2002 when we had to beat Iran to go to the finals. See how many of their teams make it then. I don't see the purpose in adding shit teams for the sake of it. Theoretically you could have a group of Germany, Colombia and Jordan. What's the point in watching a minnow getting smashed and two other teams playing a pointless game to go to a knockout of 32? It achieves nothing and removes any semblance of drama and importance in the group stages. They've already ruined the Euros, where "European Champions" Portugal couldn't win a group game, finished 3rd and still won it. This is also without taking into account collusion in the 3rd game, dead rubbers and fucking penalty shoot-outs in group matches FFS. It's for no reason other than money and it's ruined the best month of football there is every 4 years and really taken away any urge I have to travel to one which has always been a dream. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colly Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 I've no issue with the concept of adding teams at all, but the format is horrible. We saw at the Euros what a mess tweaking the "groups of four, two qualify" was and this is far worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DFF Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 13 hours ago, Lineker said: You say Canada but there is some talk of merging the North and South American qualifying sections. Source? That would be... interesting. I guess from a numbers perspective, it's only 10 more teams in CONCACAF's system. On a somewhat related note, I have a look at the FIFA rankings and noted the breakdown in the quality of teams. Based on the December FIFA rankings: Top 25 16 UEFA 7 CONMEBOL 2 CONCACAF Top 50 28 UEFA 8 CONMEBOL 7 CAF 4 AFC 3 CONCACAF Top 100 42 UEFA 27 CAF 12 CONCACAF 10 CONMEBOL 9 AFC New Zealand was OFC's highest ranked team at just outside 100th (about 109th ish). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 It always kind of bothered me when the people pushing for Australia to move into Asia kept talking about the benefits that the move would have to the sport in Australia but nothing was said about what leaving Oceania would meant for the rest of the teams in that confederation. I mean in theory it would be one step closer to a regular world cup spot for New Zealand and one other team could grab a spot in the final qualifying match and maybe cause an upset but how do New Zealand and the other countries get any better playing one less quality team on a semi-regular basis? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDK Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 Doesn't help that the only time that New Zealand ever play anyone competitive, in comparison, is at the Confederations Cup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 To be fair Tahiti qualified for the Confed Cup the other year instead of New Zealand, but yeah Australia moving out of that region didn't really help the rest of Oceania. I think an increase to 40 teams, 8 groups of 5 would have been better. This number of teams dilutes it too much and the group format is atrocious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDK Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 2 minutes ago, Adam said: To be fair Tahiti qualified for the Confed Cup the other year instead of New Zealand, but yeah Australia moving out of that region didn't really help the rest of Oceania. I think an increase to 40 teams, 8 groups of 5 would have been better. This number of teams dilutes it too much and the group format is atrocious. With 8 groups of 5 wont we still end up with the same problem as groups of 3? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 200 team world cup. 4 groups of 50. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 29 minutes ago, MDK said: With 8 groups of 5 wont we still end up with the same problem as groups of 3? Not the same number of problems, I don't think. You wouldn't need penalty shoot-outs in the group for one. Every team would get four matches at a World Cup instead of the two that some whipping boys are gonna get, and it'd lead to a last 16 rather than a last 32 and the quality teams would almost certainly rise to the top and get through a 5-team group, thus the quality remains intact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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