there are too many african teams in the finals

[Factamondo]

imho the standard of them is still well below par.....no victories yet and taking up too many places to make the finals really competitive when decent euro sides like croatia,russia,eire,scotland(onlykidding) not even there!

[Factamondo]

dont be flipant........go drop some bombs in your yard!

[Nik29]

imho the standard of them is still well below par.....no victories yet and taking up too many places to make the finals really competitive when decent euro sides like croatia,russia,eire,scotland(onlykidding) not even there!

To be fair, no European teams have won yet either.

You have a point though, teams like Croatia are missing out and New Zealand are there?

[Factamondo]

why not have a pre 'mini world cup' where say four places up for grabs between four euro four americas four asia/african teams???

[Factamondo]

To be fair, no European teams have won yet either.

You have a point though, teams like Croatia are missing out and New Zealand are there?

slovenia just did old boy!!!

[PedalR]

Poxy CONACAF and Oceania groups or whatever they're called are to blame. Presume NZ beat likes of Pitcairn Islands to qualify. As for flipping Mexico/USA - they have a virtual bye into every tournament. There should be 3 qualifying groups: Europe, S.America and "the rest".

[Factamondo]

bit harsh on usa/mexico old boy.......canada n panama cracking sides too be fair!

[80sCasual]

Bring back the Home Internationals and include Rep of Ireland, with the top two qualifying for Euros or World Cup, it would make for better competition than the qualifying groups we've had of late.

Better games for the fans too.

[Fez]

Yeah obviously teams like Greece and Serbia being far better!

[80sCasual]

Yeah obviously teams like Greece and Serbia being far better!

Greece can't be that bad, they won the Euros quite recently, something that our might hasn't done.

[RussRanger]

Think San Marino, Lichtenstein, Faroe islands, Luxembourg etc should have a "pre-qualifying group" before getting into the actual European qualifiers. Just ridiculous and a waste of time having these whipping boys taking up time and travel for other European teams. It would also make the qualifiers better quality.

Pretty sure there should be similar teams in the other World Cup qualifying groups that should have "pre-qualifiers" too.

[BennyBoyRs]

You can't do that. It's called the World Cup for a reason. They all deserve a chance and for some nations, playing teams like England, Spain, Italy, etc., is the highlight of their career.

[qprjeff1882]

the reason croatia, russia, sweden blah blah blah are not there this time is 'cos they wer'nt good enough in their own qualifying groups and the likes of new zealand were . simple as that.

[Rieger]

You can't do that. It's called the World Cup for a reason. They all deserve a chance and for some nations, playing teams like England, Spain, Italy, etc., is the highlight of their career.

exactly. rediculous cavalier statements in this thread.

[Fez]

Greece can't be that bad, they won the Euros quite recently, something that our might hasn't done.

They are THAT bad!