finally, a new rebajlo post :amen:
Yes, I hadn't posted for just over two months. During that time I was sick for a while, my uncle passed away and I was quite occupied with several other pressing matters. But in all honesty, the primary reason I've been "absent" for so long has been my almost terminal disillusionment with football - which, as You may perhaps recall, I noted in my final contribution prior to embarking upon a "posting vacation"...
Speaking of almost terminal disillusionment, the 2014 World Cup finals shall feature the smallest proportion of Whites ever. Firstly, look at the "European" teams which have qualified. England, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, and Greece shall all -to varying degrees - have a Negro or other non-White presence on the field or bench. Due to the Muslim factor, I don't even count Bosnia and Herzegovina as a White team and Switzerland's Albanian / Muslim contingent makes them just as bad. Spain may or may not have the likes of Thiago Alcantara, Jesus Navas or David Silva in their squad while the Russians invariably field an "Asiatic" type or two like Alan Dzagoev (Ossetian) or Aleksandr Samedov (Azerbaijani).
The United States' squad is guaranteed to be packed with blacks while Australia also "boasts" a non-White component. The half-Samoan Tim Cahill remains the Socceroos' main striker, Rhys Williams (Middlesbrough) is half-Indian and I wouldn't be surprised if the 35-year old New Zealand-New Guinea hybrid Archie Thompson (Melbourne Victory) makes the final cut. Yet another non-White in the mix is the quarter-Japanese Jason Davidson (Heracles Almelo), who has started the last two friendlies (he also came on straight after half-time in that humiliating 6-0 pasting at the hands of "France").
Europe said:
I wouldn't mind adding teams if they added at least 6 Euro teams out of the 8.
Europe -
I don't believe that the number of finalists should be expanded beyond 32. A 40 team World Cup would mean eight groups of five teams, which obviously translates to far too many first round matches. The qualification process simply requires a few tweaks which would make everything a lot better. How about the following "solutions"?
(A) Asia and Oceania should form a single qualification zone (3 automatic spots plus 2 intercontinental playoff berths). The Oceania section would be played as a preliminary tournament with the winner (i.e. New Zealand) dropped into the Third Round of the Asian qualifiers. This Third Round would comprise two-legged knockout matches like the current first and second stages and would therefore leave ten teams to contest a Fourth Round. This fourth phase would involve a single group format identical to that of the South American zone. The top three would automatically qualify for the finals while the fourth and fifth placed teams would enter "intercontinental playoffs" against
European teams.
(B) The, er, "powerhouse" African zone could likewise have 3 automatic spots plus 2 intercontinental playoff berths. If the First, Second,
and Third Rounds consisted of two-legged knockout matches ten nations would remain in contention in a fourth phase. Again, the Fourth Round would involve a single group format identical to that of the South American zone. The top three would automatically qualify for the finals while the fourth and fifth placed teams would enter "intercontinental playoffs" against
European teams.
(C) The CONMEBOL (5 automatic spots plus 1 intercontinental playoff berth) and CONCACAF (3 automatic spots plus 1 intercontinental playoff berth) qualification tournaments would be unchanged, with one exception, namely - the sixth placed South American nation would always play off against the fourth best CONCACAF nation for a place in the World Cup. Unfortunately, such a setup would still reward South American teams for failure, as five or six out of the ten CONMEBOL nations would be guaranteed qualification...
(D) Europe would have 12 automatic spots plus 4 intercontinental playoff berths. This equates to
three more places at the finals than the current thirteen.
Having eight groups of equal size is the key to a staightforward and fair (or at least fairer...) European qualification process. That way, the group winners would qualify automatically and all eight runners up would enter a two-legged playoff. The four winners would seal qualification with the four losers participating in intercontinental playoffs against teams from Asia and Africa.
Unfortunately, simple numbers pose a problem as UEFA has way too many members, which include hopelessly uncompetitive microstates such as Andorra and San Marino. A staggering 53 teams took part in the 2014 qualifiers - and in their boundless wisdom UEFA have recently granted full membership to Gibraltar, thus raising the total pool of competitors to 54.
Let me take the opportunity to once again state that Israel should not be permitted to play in Europe. Unfortunately, barring any "radical" political developments, we all know the Yids will never leave voluntarily...
Now, here are a few wishful thoughts...
I believe that Kazakhstan should rejoin the Asian Football Confederation, which they left in 2002. For that matter, I am of the opinion that Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia should also compete in Asia. Such a geographically-based realignment would reduce the number of UEFA members to 50. Naturally, I'd also like to see Turkey switch to the AFC, but such an action is impossible to justify on the grounds of geography as four Turkish provinces lie either fully or partially on the European side of the Bosphorus. Of course, if I had my way, Turkey would be booted out of both UEFA
and those four "European" provinces...
If the above steps were implemented, the four bottom-ranked UEFA nations could play a preliminary tournament to reduce the number of first round entrants to the 48 which would facilitate an "even" eight groups of six teams. Such a preliminary round could take the form of a mini league, with the top two progressing to the actual First Round. I'm sure that as a brief alternative to the usual one-sided hidings they are forced to endure, these tiny nations' fans would really enjoy the chance to see their teams play six competitive matches against "beatable" opposition...