I'm in agreement. Just felt they were robbed, as did the whole continent. Shocked a rule hasn't been introduced to deal with such incidents.
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Is the World Cup too Euro centric?
- Thread starter Skellig Gra
- Start date
I'm in agreement. Just felt they were robbed, as did the whole continent. Shocked a rule hasn't been introduced to deal with such incidents.
DCharlie
And even i am moderately surprised
valiant run to almost make it
at least you get to laugh at England with more gusto - i mean - i'm "English" (my entire family are basically exiled Irish) and i honestly hope we get twatted by every team we play.
I just can't put into words how much i can't stand the England set up.
Well then they need to improve so they actually qualify. The last time China qualified was 2002. There's no politics involved here, they just didn't play well enough to qualify.
Skellig Gra
Member
Tell me who was the keeper for the winner of the UEFA Champions League?
The only politics involved is making the most money. I'm well aware of that.
SomedayTheFire
Member
Nope. It's changing anyway.
Hardly from North America though
This, Uruguay noma!
Skellig Gra
Member
Hardly? Costa Rica is in North America. To say nothing of how huge football is in Mexico.
AcademicSaucer
Member
Costa Rica qualified the other day, The system works!
Skellig Gra
Member
Touche lol
SomedayTheFire
Member
I'm not really following your argument. Costa Rica are through to the WC already and they have gotten there 5 out of the last 8 times.
That's what I call Central America though. But I can agree that maybe you can include that into north.
Isn't current qualifiers awful for Ghana? What makes you so sure that it would win inter-area matches?
SomedayTheFire
Member
Central America is part of the North American continent.
Skellig Gra
Member
The argument is the other guy said football isn't big in North America, which I countered by saying the keeper on the best team in the world is from North America.
48 Teams is such bullshit.
South America might be the only region that benefits.
There's not enough depth even in concacaf to send that many teams.
SomedayTheFire
Member
Yeah I'm still not following. Keylor Navas playing for Madrid doesn't mean anything when it comes to the games popularity.
Jimmyfenix
Member
using Keylor Navas as an example lol
They had Avram Grant at the helm for the first two games (which set the tone) one of which was a defeat to Egypt who won the group.
Just a feeling they'd deliver.
Skellig Gra
Member
It means it is popular enough there to develop talent to play at the very highest level. Do I really need to prove that football is popular in North America? Mexico is in North America where it is insanely popular.
I'll trust you, it's just seeing them 3rd was disappointing.
Still, on average, I'm still not convinced it would change much.
SomedayTheFire
Member
That's a shockingly terrible argument. I'm well aware of the games popularity in North America, I have no problem with that. Your argument however is hilarious.
Skellig Gra
Member
Well enjoy your laugh, the original point remains the game is plenty popular in North America.
frankie_baby
Member
How about Accrington Stanley v china, might be a more competitive match
God Dayumm
Banned
Yeah, that's way taking the World Cup to other lands like Qatar is a good thing to make the sport more popular in other countries
Well, if I follow you, they should lead the group, so we're talking Egypt vs Ireland or Netherland as an inter-zone match...
Skellig Gra
Member
that's bait
SomedayTheFire
Member
Huh?
beato_angelico
Member
you need to win games to get to the world cup. I don't understand what's so hard to understand in this.
Skellig Gra
Member
What does that have to do with the topic? This is about the number of slots allocated to each federation.
We won our group, so I'm talking about possibly the top two second placed nations against two from Europe. The winner over two legs goes to the WC.
beato_angelico
Member
if asian/african/north american teams would start winning games at the world cup, then their ranking would improve, eventually leading to a different distribution of the slots
Skellig Gra
Member
That's not how it works though. The allocations have only really changed when the field expands. Africa has had the same exact amount since it went from 24 to 32 teams. Europe had I believe 6 out of the 16 spots in the round of 16 last Cup yet they retained a higher percentage of spots in the 2018 Cup because it doesn't change based on World Cup performance.
ScreamingTrees
Member
I was at that game and I was disgusted with the rest of the crowd with what happened.....but should it have even been a penalty? There should have been an offside given against a Ghana player.
Auroradawn
Member
Lets go with Stats , Out of all World Nations :
World Cup Winners in History : 11 Europe and 9 South America
Finalist in History : 26 Europe and 14 South America
Semi Finalists in History : 1 Asia , 1 ConcaCAF , 22 South America , 56 Europe
Quarter Final : 2 Asia , 3 Africa , 5 ConcaCAF , 32 South America , 94 Europe
Round 16 : 5 Asia , 9 Africa , 13 ConcaCAF , 1 Oceania , 31 South America , 81 Europe
Now lets see how many times non-World Cup winner European teams who reached the semi Finals : 26 Times , Compared to 1 Asia and 1 ConcaCAF and 0 Africa
When Cameron reached the Quarter Finals in 1990 , Africa's seats rose to 3 in 1994 from 2 in 1990 , When South Korea reached the Semi Finals in 2002 , Asia's seats Rose from 3.5 in 2002 to 4.5 in 2006 , ConcaCAF seats Rose from 3 in 2002 to 3.5 in 2006 when USA reached the Quarter Final in 2002 , As you can see , Results are the way to raise each continent seats , Not popularity or population or number of nations
World Cup Winners in History : 11 Europe and 9 South America
Finalist in History : 26 Europe and 14 South America
Semi Finalists in History : 1 Asia , 1 ConcaCAF , 22 South America , 56 Europe
Quarter Final : 2 Asia , 3 Africa , 5 ConcaCAF , 32 South America , 94 Europe
Round 16 : 5 Asia , 9 Africa , 13 ConcaCAF , 1 Oceania , 31 South America , 81 Europe
Now lets see how many times non-World Cup winner European teams who reached the semi Finals : 26 Times , Compared to 1 Asia and 1 ConcaCAF and 0 Africa
When Cameron reached the Quarter Finals in 1990 , Africa's seats rose to 3 in 1994 from 2 in 1990 , When South Korea reached the Semi Finals in 2002 , Asia's seats Rose from 3.5 in 2002 to 4.5 in 2006 , ConcaCAF seats Rose from 3 in 2002 to 3.5 in 2006 when USA reached the Quarter Final in 2002 , As you can see , Results are the way to raise each continent seats , Not popularity or population or number of nations
Skellig Gra
Member
Another factor you have to consider is where the tournaments are hosted. It's constantly being held in Europe which helps to skew the numbers in their favor.
It only skews them because african, asian and north american countries aren't able to compete with south american and european teams.
Host it in luxembourg for the next 50 years and you'd still have europeans being on average over represented in the knockout phase because they're just better.
beato_angelico
Member
yes because there have been 20 years of talks about the great incoming wave of asian and african football (plus the US) and then at the world cup they still keep losing. you should ask why china can't produce star players like small european/south american countries (see ronaldo or suarez)
Aren't these things decided by matches? Iceland just kicked out Turkey for example and Argentinia is close to not make it because of their bad performance.
So maybe your claim is simply not true?
Auroradawn
Member
I'm afraid with the world cup being 48 teams then this will be an overkill for a lot of countries who can barely withstand hosting 32 teams and their fans , this will make the circle of selection smaller
Man with Knife
Member
Switzerland won 9 (!) of their 10 qualification games and they might not make it. Competition in Europe is crazy, we need more european teams and need to take away from CAF, AFC or CONCACAF.
ScreamingTrees
Member
World Cups Held Outside Europe
Winners: Europe 2, South America 8, Concacaf 0, Asia 0, Africa
Finalists: Europe 9, South America 11, Concacaf 0, Asia 0, Africa 0
Semi-Finalists: Europe 22, South America 16, Concacaf 1, Asia 1, Africa 0
Quarter-Finalists: Europe 38, South America 19, Concacaf 4, Asia 1, Africa 2
Skellig Gra
Member
The UEFA qualification set up is utter nonsense.
Glad you got that 1930 US third place in there
RocknRola
Member
This right here is the real answer.
I'd be happy to see more African and Asian teams, but let us not pretend that for the most part the WC is a South American and European affair and both Conferations have massive money makers worldwide, while the other Confederations really don't (yet).
Also, in terms of the whole quality debate...well.... here are some telling numbers about the actual WC finals. Notice how only two Confederations are even counted.
When in 2026 (or whenever it happens) the World Cup goes from 32 to 48 teams (and by default more teams from all regions get more spots, with Asia and Africa benefiting the most) not much will change. We'll just have more matches and more teams will get to experience a World Cup, is all.
If we consider who made the Quarter Finals as a more broader measure stick, even then not much changes.
- We had the first non-Euro/SA team in a SemFinals in 1930 (the very first tournament with no QF's), with the USA being the sole team to make it.
- In 1938 you have Cuba being the sole team to make it.
- In 1966 you have North Korea being the sole team to make it.
- In 1970 you have Mexico being the sole team to make it.
- In 1986 you have Mexico being the sole team to make it.
- In 1990 you have Cameroon being the sole team to make it.
- In 2002 you have the USA, Senegal and South Korea being the only teams to make it.
- In 2010 you have Ghana being the sole team to make it.
- In 2014 you have Costa Rica being the sole team to make it.
^^
During all these years Euro + SA teams absolutely dominated the QF's (and obviously further stages).