Gibraltar

comment by BruceandPally (U8201)
posted 18 minutes ago
comment by Bats (U18355)
posted 49 minutes ago
Asia world cup qualifiers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification#AFC

Africa world cup qualifiers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification#CAF

CONCACAF world cup qualifiers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification#CONCACAF

Oceania world cup qualifiers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification#OFC

All of these have pre-qualifying rounds to qualify for the world cup. In fact South America and Europe are the only ones who don't have pre-qualifying. And we all know why South America don't have any.

There is no reason why UEFA shouldn't introduce pre-qualifiers for the pub teams that have no right to play with the big boys.
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It's strange, UEFA have introduced pre-qualifying rounds for the Champions League, there's four of them before getting to the group stages.

The likes of B36 Tórshavn, Folgore and those legends of Gibraltarian football, Lincoln Red Imps all play each other before teams such as APOEL and Celtic get involved.

That seems sensible enough, but not for international football? I know they're trying to qualify for the actual tournament and not the qualifying stage but still.
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All we hear at the beginning of July is people whining about how early the Europa starts. Too many qualifying rounds, too convoluted.

Now we have calls to emulate that at national level?

It stinks of entitlement

Being a reader of the UK media I am not sure that there are similar calls for pre qualifucation in the rest of Europe.

What I do know is that the English fans seem to have a real issue with competing in european competition.

They do t like europa qualifiers, they don't like europa full stop. They don't line playing international games against teams they feel are inferior. They've won every single qualifier for the euros but it's still an endless bītchfest.

Do the english actually care about competing outside the oremier leagues top 4?Maybe just leave internationsl competition to the rest of the world?

Poor spelling and grammar here. What's the message?

I think these countries are sovereign and deserve their place in world football.

Call them small if you want but the likes of the Faroe Islands San Marino, Scotland have as much right as anyone to join in with other countries.

Lets scrap the Euros and just have an annual Spain v Germany game, saves any hassle of any qualifiers, play less games, so fit for their clubs?

No one else is gonna win it

comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 8 hours, 57 minutes ago
The inability to see that by giving teams way out of their depth a pass into a level they cannot compete at is doing more harm than good is unbelievable.
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To be fair it helps a lot of them nations improve, and makes football more popular. San Marino have improved, not loads but they've improved, got a draw this campaign and didn't suffer as many big score losses.

Gilbraltar have not been around long but have still managed to score 2 goals.

Faroe Islands have got 6 points this campaign, double the amount greece have, and they've improved.

Even teams like Kazakahstan have been in competitive games. It's not like they're actually going to qualify but a lot of the minnows have done pretty well this euro and have improved.

Look at Holland + Greece, fkin pathetic campaigns by both, and Holland are meant to be one of the big teams and it was only a decade ago greece won it, should we bin them two as well?

San Marino haven't improved, they were getting a draw way back in 1993. Estonia were awful in that game, these things happen every 20 odd years

Faroe Islands got 6 points against the awful Greeks. They did well and would have been successful in the pre-group qualifying round.

Kazakhstan are an improving nation, who put time, money and effort into their football. They want to progress, and pre-group qualifiers wouldn't halt progression. They are becoming stronger at club level and even have CL group stage representation.

The Dutch have been poor, but could still qualify.

The Greeks have been awful, and would suffer the embarrassment of dropping out of assured group stage participation. Something that would be possible for all nations, as the likes of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan grow leading to a more competitive confederation.



It will be interesting to see what UEFA did if more applicants were accepted.

Why are Kazakhstan even in UEFA, they're part of Asia and they used to compete in the AFC. Same goes for Israel.

I get why Australia play in Asia, not that I agree with it entirely but why are Kazakhstan and Israel, 2 Asian nations competing in a tournament for European nations?

Politics

Kazakhstan is partially in Europe, and was of course part of the Soviet Union. Thus its football legacy is European.

Israel, think that one is quite obvious.