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OT: Soccer Thread

Latest on world cup of 48 teams, is this a joke?

Africa - 9 (up from 5)
Asia - 8 (up from 4 or 5)
Europe - 16 (up from 13)
North, Central America and Caribbean - 6 (up from 3 or 4)
Oceania - 1 (from 0 or 1)
South America - 6 (up from 4 or 5)

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/39448474

Way too many teams for Asia, Africa and CONCACAF, Europe and South America deserve way more..

It's the world cup not Europe cup. Europe at 16 is fine. I would take a away one or two of Africa's and give south America a tad more, but other than that, it looks more balanced to me.
 
Asian teams are crap, I wouldn't punish Africa. That said, if they insist on such nonsense, I'd leave it as it is. The world cup won't miss teams that come in 17th in Europe or 7th in South America. Spread some of the opportunity....
 
Asian teams are crap, I wouldn't punish Africa. That said, if they insist on such nonsense, I'd leave it as it is. The world cup won't miss teams that come in 17th in Europe or 7th in South America. Spread some of the opportunity....

I agree about Asia, 4 or 4.5 at best is enough for Asia, same as CONCACAF, 3 or 3.5. However Europe deserves more, countries like Slovakia, Slovenia, Armenia, Israel, Turkey, Norway will probably not make it with 16 spots while they can advance from Asia any time. Africa is same crap, 6 is more than enough honeslty
 
It's the world cup not Europe cup. Europe at 16 is fine. I would take a away one or two of Africa's and give south America a tad more, but other than that, it looks more balanced to me.

The 48 teams format is real joke dude, the first round will be real joke, the excitement of 3rd match of the group won't exist anymore and you are probably out with only one defeat. It is World Cup but you need to go by power of continent and as it stand Europe deserves way more than 16, same as South America.
 
The 48 teams format is real joke dude, the first round will be real joke, the excitement of 3rd match of the group won't exist anymore and you are probably out with only one defeat. It is World Cup but you need to go by power of continent and as it stand Europe deserves way more than 16, same as South America.

FIFA, unlike the NHL, sees the promise of growing the sport by having these teams in this tournament.

Europe is fine at 16. South America may need a tad more, one or two spots, but on a whole, I think this is best for growing the sport. Adding more European teams just makes the tournament more of the Euro cup. Europeans will have 1/3 teams represented at this tournament, more than enough.

Asia at 8 may be a bit much, but having these teams from one of the fastest growing regions on the planet isn't a bad idea when it comes to growing the sport.

Africa at 9, same thing, a tad much, but I would like to see more African teams than more European teams.

CONCACAF at 6 is a great idea, because lets face facts, there was only one spot in flux because Mexico and the USA are guaranteed to qualify. Maybe a team like Canada can qualify now, maybe a Jamaica, maybe a Trinidad and Tobago again.

Oceania at 1 is no calamity, although it's all but certain to always be Australia.

South America at 6 seems like a small number to me, but not by much. I wouldn't shed a tear is they stripped one each from Asia and Africa and gave it to south America.

At the end of the day, the world cup is supposed to represent the world. If it was simply the top ranked 48 teams in the world facing off it would be a very boring euro verus south america cup with a few other nations making the top 48.

The actual top 48 according to FIFA.

1.Argentina

2.Brazil

3.Germany

4.Chile

5.Belgium

6.France

7.Colombia

8.Portugal

9.Uruguay

10.Spain

11.Switzerland

12.Wales

12.Poland

14.England

15.Italy

16.Croatia

17.Mexico

18.Peru

19.Costa Rica

20.Egypt

21.Netherlands

22.Ecuador

23.Iceland

24.Ireland

25.Slovakia

26.Turkey

27.Hungary

28.Senegal

29.Bosnia and Herzegovina

30.USA

31.Ukraine

32.Cameroon

33.Iran

34.Austria

35.Northern Ireland

36.Burkina Faso

37.Tunisia

38.Congo

39.Romania

40.South Korea

41.Nigeria

42.Czech Republic

43.Ghana

43.Paraguay

45.Sweden

46.Greece

47.Ivory Coast

48.Denmark.

South America 8

Europe 26

North America 3

Asia 2

Africa 9

Oceania 0

Not so much a world cup anymore is it?
 
Thats is not what the majority of real football fans think dude. People who follow football and World Cup religiously in last 3-4 decades. It just killing all the excitement. For once qualifying to World Cup used to be like a day to not forget for some countries that they still celebrate after 30 years or so.
Asian, Africian and CONCACF football and number of teams(23) just will ruin the whole quality of tournament. That is like almost half of teams of tournament.
Consider the World Cup of 24 teams in past vs now and how exciting was to watch World biggest sport event.
 
FIFA ranking is btw joke also, is base on your results in freindlies(plus official matches) you can arrange few freindlies against some weak teams and win it and improve your ranking.
 
Thats is not what the majority of real football fans think dude. People who follow football and World Cup religiously in last 3-4 decades. It just killing all the excitement. For once qualifying to World Cup used to be like a day to not forget for some countries that they still celebrate after 30 years or so.
Asian, Africian and CONCACF football and number of teams(23) just will ruin the whole quality of tournament. That is like almost half of teams of tournament.
Consider the World Cup of 24 teams in past vs now and how exciting was to watch World biggest sport event.

There are still some Canadians who talk about when canada was in the world cup. That's how exciting/important it was here. As it stands, how do you grow the sport when it's the same 30 teams that always qualify?

Interest in places like canada would explode if Canada could get back into the world cup.

I imagine it would be the same in other countries that rarely made it before.

As for the quality, sure, it might drop, but once you get into the elimination rounds the cream usually rises to the top.
 
There are still some Canadians who talk about when canada was in the world cup. That's how exciting/important it was here. As it stands, how do you grow the sport when it's the same 30 teams that always qualify?

Interest in places like canada would explode if Canada could get back into the world cup.

I imagine it would be the same in other countries that rarely made it before.

As for the quality, sure, it might drop, but once you get into the elimination rounds the cream usually rises to the top.

Another disadvantage of this system is you play a pretty long qualification rounds which may take around almost 2 years to play ONLY 2 world cup matches for some nations. Lets say Canada make it and is in a group with Argentina and Poland, you play your first game against Argentina and you lose badly then you are pretty much out which wasn't the case with group stage of 4 teams.
 
Iran is 33rd?

Christ Canada is 117th now

They actually jumped to 28th in new unofficial FIFA ranking after what i heard, they have been the best ranked Asian team in last 2-3 years. Carlos Queiroz former Portugal and Real coach is coaching the team in last 5-6 years, a very defensive minded coach and team is without defeat in 6 match of World Cup qualifications(4 wins and 2 draws) without allowing a single goal in 6 games which is quite impressive, in other hand most wins are 1-0, so it is safe to say they almost made it.
Iran doesn't have superstars like golden generation of Ali Daei, Ali Karimi, Mahdavikia, Nekounam, Hashemian, etc who all played long time in top European leagues and for clubs such as Bayern, Hamburg, Hertha, Osasuna, etc but they are more united as team and buy the team concept way more.

That is the thing i don't like about FIFA ranking while base on FIFA ranking Iran has been the best Asian team in last 2-3 years(which is a plus and serve on team seeding) but Japan is probably on paper the best Asian team, almost their whole squad play in top 4-5 European leagues.
 
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Great win by Juves over Barac. Barca defense is horrible. I expect a Real-Juves final if they don't meet each others in semi.
 
Really Brutal as you said, but i blame this to Carlo, Vidal was playing nasty and crazy and it was matter of the time until he get the red but Carlo kept him in match. I don't like Real but i guess they were overall better team in 240 minutes. Problem with Bayern is as Matthaus once said there is no competition for Bayern in Bundesliga, so not much challenge in local league and in bigger stage such as CL, bang you face Real. For some time Dortmund used to challenge them in past but even Dortmund is not the same team.

I hope Juves win it all, they deserve it, they built a team for CL this year, and the core of team playing long time together, they finally spent some money(nothing compare to Real of course), paid 90 millions for Higuain, also got Pjanic who is doing not bad so far.
 
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Man this thread is dead, Real wins CL and rightfully deserve it(i hate Real btw). CR7 is just a machine, i won't be surprised if he plays up to 40.
 
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