VillaChris Posted November 18, 2023 Share Posted November 18, 2023 (edited) 4 hours ago, villa4europe said: Nothing to do with expanding the tournament and making it easier to qualify Well it can act as a springboard for smaller nations to then make World cups (where up to 2026 there were significantly fewer qualifying places available). Iceland and Wales both made a great impact at Euro 2016 and made World cups afterwards so they justify the expansion as they actually make an impact at the tournament and then build on it for future ones. Surely aswell all they've done is replace the likes of Bulgaria, ROI and Sweden in qualifying for tournaments as those nations are probably lowest they've ever been in football terms. Was going to say Hungary but they've improved so much in last 5 years under Delio Rossi. End of the day people whinge about how weak groups are nowadays so to me it's good there's less and less teams around where you know it's going to be six points guaranteed home and away. Even Andorra are getting draws now and only losing narrowly. Luxembourg are another who look like they've just missed out but won 4-1 v Bosnia the other day and will be a very tricky 3rd/4th seeds for the World cup groups. They won against Republic of Ireland away in the last qualifiers so that's the danger for any home nation in with them. Edit: I can guarantee if England drew Luxembourg in next qualifying group then a pundit will lazily claim that Luxembourg should have to pre qualify as it's a complete waste of time and just ignore the huge progress they've made recently. Edited November 18, 2023 by VillaChris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rds1983 Posted November 18, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted November 18, 2023 3 hours ago, VillaChris said: Surely aswell all they've done is replace the likes of Bulgaria, ROI and Sweden in qualifying for tournaments as those nations are probably lowest they've ever been in football terms. Nah, those teams have always sucked and their fans are all losers. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted November 19, 2023 Share Posted November 19, 2023 On 17/11/2023 at 23:27, maqroll said: Ridiculous. Astana is on a similar latitude to Mumbai. Why would UEFA allow that? All it really means for other UEFA teams is an absurdly long flight. FWIW, I'm not a huge fan of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Turkey being in UEFA either. If you're on the Asian continent, you should play in the Asian federation....(I know most of Russia is in Asia as well, but Moscow is European, as well as most of their other footballing cities.) If I were a Kazakh, I'd want to play in the federation that offered an easier path to the World Cup. On 18/11/2023 at 08:16, Zatman said: 15% of Kazakhstan is considered Europe. They left Asia for better opponents Now they are 90 minutes from qualifying Zatman is right here, basically. If you take the line that Moscow is in Europe (by using a traditional definition that Europe begins at the Urals) then a portion of Kazakhstan is west of the Ural River (though AIUI it's closer to 10% than 15%): The boundary between 'Asia' and 'Europe' being set at Turkey's northern border is also completely arbitrary, but 'traditional', so the Caucasus states make sense as European on that basis. An alternative approach would be to consider them (and Cyprus as well) to be Asian. The fundamental problem is that there is no continental division between Europe and Asia. I have looked before for contemporaneous accounts of why Kazakhstan moved from AFC to UEFA and unfortunately there are few links left nowadays, but there are multiple explanations, one of which is 'better teams' and the one I find more plausible which is 'more lucrative fixtures', but others as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted November 20, 2023 Share Posted November 20, 2023 Australia moved to Asia because the Oceania confederation was a total joke. We would beat the other Oceania countries 10-0 (sometimes 30-0) to become Oceania champions or to qualify for the WC. Except that Oceania only gets half a WC place, so after playing a dozen matches against amateur teams we’d play one actual competitive match, once, every 4 years (other than that it would only be the odd friendly against a high profile side). The whole thing works much better with Australia in Asia and a more even Oceania group doing their thing together. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hornso Posted November 20, 2023 Share Posted November 20, 2023 1 hour ago, LondonLax said: Australia moved to Asia because the Oceania confederation was a total joke. We would beat the other Oceania countries 10-0 (sometimes 30-0) to become Oceania champions or to qualify for the WC. Except that Oceania only gets half a WC place, so after playing a dozen matches against amateur teams we’d play one actual competitive match, once, every 4 years (other than that it would only be the odd friendly against a high profile side). The whole thing works much better with Australia in Asia and a more even Oceania group doing their thing together. Also, playing against the Oceanian sides the majority of the time our European players didn’t bother coming back, meaning our best XI barely played together and only when the stakes were really high. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted November 20, 2023 Share Posted November 20, 2023 (edited) Didn't Bosnich score a penalty in one of those huge wins v Cook Islands or whoever? Can't believe Australia haven't once played Iran in AFC since the move in 2006. Sorry to give Aussies PTSD but I watched the second leg of that infamous play off in full during lockdown and Australia should've been 6-0 up after 70 minutes, one of their worst ever sporting chokes. Shame as they'd probably have made the last 16 at France 98 as Kewell and Viduka were just breaking through at that time. Edited November 20, 2023 by VillaChris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hornso Posted November 21, 2023 Share Posted November 21, 2023 1 hour ago, VillaChris said: Didn't Bosnich score a penalty in one of those huge wins v Cook Islands or whoever? Can't believe Australia haven't once played Iran in AFC since the move in 2006. Sorry to give Aussies PTSD but I watched the second leg of that infamous play off in full during lockdown and Australia should've been 6-0 up after 70 minutes, one of their worst ever sporting chokes. Shame as they'd probably have made the last 16 at France 98 as Kewell and Viduka were just breaking through at that time. Good memory. According to Wiki he scored "a late penalty in a 13-0 win over the Soloman Islands". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted November 22, 2023 Share Posted November 22, 2023 Could be a couple of juicy groups here Pot 1 Team Rank Germany (host) — Portugal 1 France 2 Spain 3 Belgium 4 England 5 Pot 2 Team Rank Hungary 6 Turkey 7 Romania 8 Denmark 9 Albania 10 Austria 11 Pot 3 Team Rank Netherlands 12 Scotland 13 Croatia 14 Slovenia 15 Slovakia 16 Czech Republic 17 Pot 4[a] Team Rank Italy 18 Serbia 19 Switzerland 20 Play-off winner A — Play-off winner B Play-off winner C 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan-scott Posted November 22, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted November 22, 2023 4 hours ago, Zatman said: Could be a couple of juicy groups here Pot 1 Team Rank Germany (host) — Portugal 1 France 2 Spain 3 Belgium 4 England 5 Pot 2 Team Rank Hungary 6 Turkey 7 Romania 8 Denmark 9 Albania 10 Austria 11 Pot 3 Team Rank Netherlands 12 Scotland 13 Croatia 14 Slovenia 15 Slovakia 16 Czech Republic 17 Pot 4[a] Team Rank Italy 18 Serbia 19 Switzerland 20 Play-off winner A — Play-off winner B Play-off winner C Definite groups of death vibes with Italy, Serbia and the Swiss in pot 4! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted November 22, 2023 Share Posted November 22, 2023 France, Denmark, Netherlands, Italy would be ridiculous. Watch England get Albania, Slovenia and Greece and still start Jordan Henderson.... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted November 22, 2023 Share Posted November 22, 2023 (edited) 37 minutes ago, villan-scott said: Definite groups of death vibes with Italy, Serbia and the Swiss in pot 4! I think worst group for England plus others in the group would be England, Denmark, Croatia and Italy I think playing Turkey in Germany would also be a team for people to avoid Edited November 22, 2023 by Zatman 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Platt Posted November 23, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted November 23, 2023 Safegate has had piss easy groups so far so let's see how he does with some proper opposition. England should fear no one but the manager does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted November 23, 2023 Share Posted November 23, 2023 Italy not seeded despite winning last time? Harsh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted November 23, 2023 Share Posted November 23, 2023 1 hour ago, sne said: Italy not seeded despite winning last time? Harsh. Its based on points gained in qualifying 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted November 23, 2023 Share Posted November 23, 2023 On 19/11/2023 at 16:26, HanoiVillan said: I have looked before for contemporaneous accounts of why Kazakhstan moved from AFC to UEFA and unfortunately there are few links left nowadays, but there are multiple explanations, one of which is 'better teams' and the one I find more plausible which is 'more lucrative fixtures', but others as well. They’d have a historic claim because between the days when UEFA was founded and the early 90s the flag of Kazakhstan was this: Their people were citizens of the Soviet Union and played in UEFA competitions. Any player in the squad right now who is older then 31 was born in a country where the capital city was Moscow. Most of the population will be in the same boat. When the transfer from AFC to UEFA happened (2002) only the people who were below ten years of age would have been born after the Soviet era, so while a lot of things you say are true when it comes to negotiating with which federation your football will be played in, Kazakhstan have a strong cultural and historical case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted November 23, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted November 23, 2023 Italy in Pot 4 as hosts is wild Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a-k Posted November 23, 2023 Share Posted November 23, 2023 (edited) 4 hours ago, Stevo985 said: Italy in Pot 4 as hosts is wild Did Italy recently annex Germany? Edited November 23, 2023 by a-k 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted November 23, 2023 Share Posted November 23, 2023 4 hours ago, a-k said: Did Italy recently annex Germany? Its like the old days 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted November 23, 2023 Share Posted November 23, 2023 Honest like if England were playing in frankfurt (they won't) you'd want to avoid Germany, Turkey, romania, Albania, Serbia, Croatia You can see where 100m come from, England will travel and they'll still be out numbered If Germany get Italy here... That's a big one, thats a 70s sporting rivalry that's still going, maybe bigger than England vs germany, Germanys here on a Sunday think I'm fan parking it with work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaJ100 Posted November 23, 2023 Share Posted November 23, 2023 4 hours ago, a-k said: Did Italy recently annex Germany? Not even the Roman Empire could do that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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