Ranked 210th, and last, in FIFA rankings, San Marino once again opened their World Cup qualifying with a hammering. A hammering that is actually seen as a decent result because they kept England down to just 5 goals! 195th best team in the world Gibraltar also got a 'decent result', losing only 3-0 to the 44th best national side, Norway. It looks like another long slog for the European minnows in international football.
The UEFA World Cup qualification system is rather unique. With 55 nations it is the biggest, with Africa having 54 teams, Asia 46, CONCACAF 34 and then Oceania (11) and South America (10). The big difference between Europe and the other 3 big sections is all 55 nations enter in the same round of qualification. Africa, North America and Asia have rounds where the lowest ranked teams compete to progress to further rounds where the higher ranked nations join.
Of course, Europe does have more qualification places open to them, but equally it has higher quality teams.
The Nations League has come in and proved a success. San Marino ended the most recent campaign with 2 rare draws. They have a total of 3 draws in the 142 qualifying games they have played (scoring 19 goals and conceding 650!!). Gibraltar have 4 wins and 2 draws in the two seasons, resulting in promotion. For a nation with a record of 28 games played 28 games lost in qualification campaigns, that is a big deal.
The Nations League has also given hope. North Macedonia have done something that was perhaps unthinkable pre-NL - they have qualified for a major tournament.
It is nearly 30 years since San Marino first entered qualification. In that time they have shown no signs of improvement. In fact many factors suggest they have got worse.
People will talk about being fair, every nation should have a chance. But every nation has a chance in the African, Asian, CONCACAF qualifiers. The difference being in those is nations have to earn a place in the latter stages, either by historic success or by winning through the qualifiers.
To me it is ridiculous having the likes of San Marino and Gibraltar getting a free pass to the main qualifying section. There is no incentive to improve, it is just a jolly for part time footballers fortunate enough to be eligible to play for small nations. The Nations League has gone someway to address the situation, but it is time for that to go further and a filter round or 2 introduced to World Cup Qualifying.
(European Championship qualifying is a different matter, with almost half of the teams going through. I would cut them down from the other end, and give automatic qualification to the top 8 teams).
UEFA Minnows
posted on 26/3/21
Sure. Which part?
posted on 26/3/21
comment by Vidicschin (U3584)
posted 21 seconds ago
comment by Bãles left boot (U22081)
posted 5 minutes ago
The only way to make it truly fair is to eliminate qualifying. How is it fair that only the best sides are allowed to go into the Euros or World Cup? If the best sides keep winning give the others more players until every game is fair. Then it's fair.
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Can you elaborate on this as it doesn’t make sense.
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It's a pretty standard method. It's what everyone around the country uses for 5/7-a-side teams. If England are losing 4-0 to Belgium at half time, England get De Bruyne and Belgium get Dier. It's not too difficult to understand.
posted on 26/3/21
Yes that would be the basis of it. Thanks Danny.
posted on 26/3/21
comment by Bãles left boot (U22081)
posted 3 minutes ago
Yes that would be the basis of it. Thanks Danny.
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My bad in that case. I thought you were trying to be serious instead of having a giggle.
posted on 26/3/21
comment by Vidicschin (U3584)
posted 40 minutes ago
Diafol
I remember you guys thrashing Spain 3-0 with my all time fave Mark Hughes goal being one of them.
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Yes. Great performance. Also lost 1-0 to Iceland in the same campaign! Typical!
posted on 26/3/21
Yeah agree. Even just eliminating five teams to make it a round fifty would be a start and eliminate the absolute worst of the worst
posted on 26/3/21
Should make it invitational (based on rankings) Top X auto qualify (they always do anyway) the other X places should be fought out between the rest of the nations of the world. England shouldn't be given free passes against San Marino, it just wasting everybody's time.
posted on 26/3/21
To be fair one of the most embarrassing moments in football involved England v San Marino and the goal in the first 30 seconds.
posted on 27/3/21
9 seconds!
posted on 27/3/21
Just looking back on that now and Motson said England needed to win by seven and hope Poland could hold Holland, obviously England fell one goal short but Poland failed anyway. Imagine if Poland had held the dutch(only 1-2 until the 88th minute) and england failed because of that San Marino goal.