9 comments

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  Richard Whittall

  10 ヶ月 ago

  Football's not all about television and entertainment. Why change everything because you might find Turkey v. Slovakia a bit boring? England duds have been around a lot longer than Setanta PPV.
  
  If anything, FIFA should make the World Cup HARDER to qualify for. And England, judging by the past forty years, are owed absolutely nothing as far as qualification matches go.
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  Vjeko

  10 ヶ月 ago

  Im Croatian.... the England match is not what I am looking forward to.. England couldnt qualify for Euro 2008. I cant wait to watch Croatia play Ukraine. Should be tough!!!!
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  Hasan

  10 ヶ月 ago

  Football is not cricket.Football should remain football.The charm lies in club rivalries: Liverpool-Everton,Arsenal-Tottenham,Barca-Real.In cricket every year hundreds of internationals are played and believe me it is one of the most boring sports in the world(I'm telling this to you despite being an Indian).So let us all enjoy international football once in every 2 years without letting its charm die.
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  Roddy

  10 ヶ月 ago

  UEFA ought to have a look at what Asia do, separating their countries into a few categories for international games. Get all the lower-ranked nations to play some games against each other, then take the best couple of teams and pit them in a pool with the big boys. Many of the games in the advanced stage are in a small space of time, like the Gaffer recommends. They do the same with the Asian Cup.
  
  Adopting this would cut the exhaustion, since most of the lower-ranked UEFA countries are concentrated in eastern Europe. England would still have to travel to Russia and Croatia et al, but for far fewer fixtures.
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  kkfla737

  10 ヶ月 ago

  This is on UEFA not FIFA.
  
  CONCACAF and AFC get rid of the minnows early by having early knock out rounds and ensuring everyone left at this stage has enough quality to be competitive. Somehow Canada sneaks through every time but they get eliminated in due course when the minnows are gone. :) (not a dig at Canada, but their presence at this stage consistently is becoming a joke because they cannot get any further much like the US and Saudi Arabia presence at the World Cup is a joke because they are like fresh roadkill when they get to the finals)
  
  UEFA needs to have a pre qualifying tournament . That's the simple solution.
  
  By the way, I feel the Ukraine and not Croatia will be England's biggest hurdle in this group. It is very difficult to get road points in Belarus also. The group isn't as easy as many in the English media think. Simply beating Croatia doesn't ensure anything.
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  Thomas

  10 ヶ月 ago

  I agree with Kartic, UEFA need to pre qualify teams and get the groups down to 5 teams. I agree Andorra is a joke, but the other countries in this group are legitmate. Those countries deserve their shot. Europes principalities, Luxembourg on down, are the only ones that should prequalify. Presumable, Luxembourg would win such a tournament. Then, in future qualifications, last place finishers should pre qualify against the principalities that didn't come out of that prequalification previously.
  
  I love World Cup qualifying dates, the idea that the whole world is playing matches on day for one purpose is really cool to me.
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  AtlantaPompey

  10 ヶ月 ago

  I would rather see the individual confederations tournaments become the qualification tournament for the world cup. Open up the tournaments to every team in the region, have several different levels of knockouts, give certain countries a bye into the next round, etc.
  
  This would not only cut down on the number of international matches, but make all of them meaningful. Every confederation would have to play it's tournament the year before the World Cup and in the month of June. Imagine the excitement that would generate having all of those tournaments running at the same time?
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  cat dirt

  10 ヶ月 ago

  I agree, but my beef is with CONCACAF: first there are two stages of home and away pre-qualifier, then three four team groups with top two advancing, then a final stage for the actual qualifying where the top 3 of 6 qualify. The process goes on forever and you know- in the beginning- that out of the final 6 Mexico, United States, Costa Rica, Jamaica & El Salvador will be through. You're telling me it takes six months to find out whether it will be Trinidad & Tobago/Guatemala as the final club in the group of 6? Seriously? Why not give a pass to the final round for any team that has qualified, say, the last two world cups. That would give you three of your final six: Mexico, U.S & Costa Rica
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  Fredorrarci

  10 ヶ月 ago

  An important function that international football serves these days is to maintain the connection between fans in smaller or non-European countries to their players who play in the major leagues. Already, several non-European nations have been cowed by the big clubs into playing 'home' friendlies in Europe. Due to this, Brazilian fans, for example, are deprived of seeing their own stars in the flesh for extended periods of time. If the richest nations are happy to reap the benefits of being in such a privileged position in the globalised football economy, they should put up with being inconvenienced by international breaks four or five time a year, or with having to deign to play those pesky principalities every so often.
  
  To say as Hasan does above that "The charm lies in club rivalries...So let us all enjoy international football once in every 2 years without letting its charm die" is to close of a whole swathe of what makes football football. It is more than what goes on in those parts of the world fortunate enough to see the world's best players up close every week. International football might need a nip here and a tuck there, but drastic surgery is not required.
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