Does Europe have too many qualifycation slots for World Cup?

Top European teams:
1. Spain
2. Italy
3. Germany
4. Netherlands
5. France
6. Portugal
(England)

If you ask me Europe should have 6 or max 7 slots. The other teams such as Switzerland, Russia, Montenegro, Ukraine, Bosnia, Greece, Israel, Hungary, Romania, Sweeden, Bulgaria, Croatia, Belgium are hardly any powerhouses. I am sure many African or South American teams could eliminiate them over 2 knock-out qualifying matches.

I think EUrope having 13 slots is a little unfair, when u for example look at the fact that all 5 South American teams progressed past the groupstage and 4 went to the quarterfinals in the last world cup.

Perhaps the number of European slots could be reduced to 10, while qualification slots for South America should be around 6-7 while Africa and Asia get's 1 more slot.

Seriously do teams like England, Russia, Greece, Bosnia etc. really deserve a direct world cup spot?

I think there's nothing wrong with- if South America qualifiers were 6-7, then only 2-4 teams would be out- that would severely lower the quality and intensity of the matches. Each continent has the most qualifiers based on the # of countries there (except Africa), which is why Europe get so many. And I'm not too sure how many African teams could knockout those European ones over two qualifying matches? (although most South American teams could, but like I said, if more SA slots were awarded, that would be numerically unfair).

Well this year SA has 5 automatic slots, which should allow Colombia and Argentina will qualify comfortably. Brazil is in by default. Frankly none of Chile, Uruguay or Paraguay are playing to their 2010 levels.

Doesn't Europe have the most teams out of any continent?

If they do then it makes sense for Europe to have the most slots.

Yohan Modric wrote:Doesn't Europe have the most teams out of any continent?

If they do then it makes sense for Europe to have the most slots.

No it's Africa with 53 countries. then Europe with 46 followed by Asia 44-45 or so

You want the best teams in the world cup as much as possible. Europe has the most quality by far... so it's well deserved.

we beat nigeria

nvm

Bénin wrote:

Yohan Modric wrote:Doesn't Europe have the most teams out of any continent?

If they do then it makes sense for Europe to have the most slots.

No it's Africa with 53 countries. then Europe with 46 followed by Asia 44-45 or so

In Europe, 53 FAs compete for 13 World Cup slots (8 groups with 6 teams plus 1 group with 5 teams).

Ausi90 wrote:Seriously do teams like England, Russia, Greece, Bosnia etc. really deserve a direct world cup spot?

No one has a direct World Cup spot. Everybody has to fight for it here in the UEFA zone.

Also, that top list left out teams like Belgium, and yes, teams like Russia, Greece, Bosnia, Serbia, Czech Republic, Croatia, hell ,even England deserve their shot at this.

Who do you want to give the slots to, you propose taking off UEFA? South America? For what? So Guyana can get in on that shit?

Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay is perfectly fine TBH. Also be glad we mob up some teams like Azerbaijan, Northern Ireland, Kasakhstan etc, if they were in CONCAF they might catenaccio their asses into qualifying.

But yeah, for all I care replace Sweden with Malaysia, and Poland with Suriname.

VivaStPauli wrote:Who do you want to give the slots to, you propose taking off UEFA? South America? For what? So Guyana can get in on that shit?

Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay is perfectly fine TBH.

This year SA could see 6 of their 10 participants get into it, given that we get 4.5 spots (4 automatic + 1 would compete with with the least qualified asian, I believe) and Brazil is in it. If things were to stay as they are now, it would be Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay and possibly Venezuela. I don't see how anyone could want more representation.

If anything, I think this thread should be arguing for decreasing the amount of teams from 32 back to 24, but I wouldn't be for that either.

I think it's fine as it is, but to contribute something to this thread:

Does anyone think it'd be a workable idea that, say, three World Cup spots could be won by continents in the previous World Cup? There are six groups:

Africa
Asia
Europe
N./C. America & Caribbean
Oceania
South America

Calculate average "points per continents per matches played" at the next World Cup and give, for example, the three highest scoring continents an extra WC spot for the next tournament. These three spots could be initially taken away one from Europe and one from two other continents (perhaps N./C. America & Caribbean and Asia).

No, because Europe (and SA) is the powerhouse of football. Until the best african teams go deep in the World Cup, there is no need and no ground to give them more slots.

The World Cup has to feature countries from all over the world, but there is the level of play to consider. That's why Oceania has only half a slot despite having several islands nations.

lol.. Croatia is better than any South American or African team.. They were at the same level with Spain and Italy at euro

Let's have a look on numbers. How many teams did qualify to play-offs since WC98'. I DIDN'T count best 7 european teams by Ausi.

1998
Europe - 4/8
S. America - 4/5
N. America - 1/3
Africa - 1/5
Asia - 0/4

2002
Europe - 5/9
S. America - 2/5
N. America - 2/3
Africa - 1/5
Asia - 2/4

2006
Europe - 3/7
S. America - 3/4
N. America - 1/4
Africa - 1/5
Asia - 0/4

2010
Europe - 1/6
S. America - 5/5
N. America - 2/3
Africa - 1/6
Asia - 2/4

So, total:

Europe - 13/30 = 43%
S. America - 14/19 = 73%
N. America - 6/13 = 46%
Africa - 4/21 = 19%
Asia - 4/16 = 25%

Result - second tier european teams are better than BEST African and Asian teams!! And they are +- same good as BEST N. American teams!

yea, let's forget russia and switzerland and have burundi and thailand in there instead so it's fair to other continents

Don't you dare forget Switzerland!

(BTW, no one mentioned Turkey? They are not half bad either. ^^)

rwo power wrote:
(BTW, no one mentioned Turkey? They are not half bad either. ^^)

Stop living in the past, baby

Turkey have been crap for a while now. Fourth in their quali group behind the likes of Romania and Hungary. They've qualified for only one World Cup (2002) since 1962 anyway.

tuddor wrote:lol.. Croatia is better than any South American or African team.. They were at the same level with Spain and Italy at euro

the delusion

Bar Brazil and maybe Argentina, yes Croatia is better than any South American or African team. Ghana, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Chile in 2010 were better, but theyve all dropped their form alot since then.

juventus101 wrote:Bar Brazil and maybe Argentina, yes Croatia is better than any South American or African team. Ghana, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Chile in 2010 were better, but theyve all dropped their form alot since then.

For starters you're forgetting about Colombia, which has been winning nonstop since Pekerman arrived and has some quality players in Falcao, Jackson Martinez, Guarin and James Rodriguez. They just won the SA U20 cup btw, so the team's only likely to get better. And Uruguay can still beat Croatia, they might be having a slump in form but in the end of the day they're still a good team. They didn't even make automatic qualification for the WC in 2010 and still reached semis.

Uruguay is simply too inconsistent, and right now their form is not good. Colombia has a good up and coming team but i dont think theyre as good as Croatio right now, remember Croatia in the Euro went head to head with Italy and Spain in the same group and almost advanced.

Mandzukic, Modric, Srna, Jelavic, Olic, Kovacic, Rakitic and yugoslavian fighting spirit ... People forgot how close was Croatia to advance from a group with Spain and Italy

Exactly. Croatia has alot of class and a real fighting spirit. Spain and Italy ended up being the 2 finalists in the Euro and Croatia almost advanced in a group with both of them. Honestly, even Brazil or Argentina probably wouldnt have advanced from that group either.

tuddor wrote:Mandzukic, Modric, Srna, Jelavic, Olic, Kovacic, Rakitic and yugoslavian fighting spirit ... People forgot how close was Croatia to advance from a group with Spain and Italy

We were really up against it.