bolivia vs argentina

[flammableBen]

Yeah. I'm with mex. Infact I was going to make a similar post. Infact, less teams from Europe and S.America, and more from Asia and Africa. Surely part of the world cup remit is to encourage football around the world.

Or we could just replace the worldcup with a supersized champions league. International football is shit anyway.

[jonny72]

Yeah. I'm with mex. Infact I was going to make a similar post. Infact, less teams from Europe and S.America, and more from Asia and Africa. Surely part of the world cup remit is to encourage football around the world.

Or we could just replace the worldcup with a supersized champions league. International football is shit anyway.

I'm all in favour of encouraging football around the world, but trying to do so by putting shit teams in to the World Cup ahead of decent teams isn't the way to go about it. If it was, they'd be doing a lot better but now than they are.

Same goes for them giving the World Cup to South Africa, chances are that it is going to be a disaster. Which is solely due to FIFA trying to force the development of football in other countries rather than working to develop it.

[Doore]

I'm all in favour of encouraging football around the world, but trying to do so by putting shit teams in to the World Cup ahead of decent teams isn't the way to go about it. If it was, they'd be doing a lot better but now than they are.

Same goes for them giving the World Cup to South Africa, chances are that it is going to be a disaster. Which is solely due to FIFA trying to force the development of football in other countries rather than working to develop it.

On what basis is it going to be a disaster?  Any evidence for this?  I really think us in Europe need to widen our horizons a little bit.  Football is a global sport and the World Cup must reflect this - 13 European clubs is generous.  It's not (shock, horror, stop the presses) always all about the money.

[mexico red]

couldnt have put it better myself doore.

[jonny72]

On what basis is it going to be a disaster?  Any evidence for this?

Stadiums might not be finished, likely power cuts out due to shortage of electricity, high crime rates, poor transport system / network, poor basic infrastructure etc. I don't have a problem with the World Cup being hosted in other countries around the world, but South Africa just wasn't ready for it and it was forced through too soon.

I really think us in Europe need to widen our horizons a little bit.  Football is a global sport and the World Cup must reflect this - 13 European clubs is generous.  It's not (shock, horror, stop the presses) always all about the money.

Why is 13 teams generous? There are more countries in Europe and more higher rated teams, so why not a proportionate number of places at the World Cup? Its not just about the money and I never said it was, my biggest problem is that you end up with lots of shit teams at the World Cup at the expense of decent teams.

At present the European Championship is a better tournament all round than the World Cup, that isn't right and they need to do something about it. Maybe expanding the size of the World Cup would do the trick, to 48 or even 64 countries? I like the idea of 48 teams, with an additional preliminary group round for the 32 lowest ranked teams - the top two from each group going through to another group round with the top 16 ranked teams.