2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar - UEFA Qualifiers

[KTChampions]

I think everyone understands perfectly well without any mathematical calculations and ratings that the European teams from the seventeenth onwards are head and shoulders above any African team from the ninth. And I think that they are stronger than even the top African teams, so this unfair distribution of quotas raises many questions.

It may even be unfair, but looking at football realities, it is difficult to find a solution.
But in your opinion, how should the places for the World Cup be distributed?

I am for meritocracy - the strongest (UEFA zone) should receive more tickets. How much this is a debatable question, but it can be clarified separately. The situation when some 7th strongest team from Africa does not get to the final part of the World Cup and this is considered unfair is absurd. If you cannot beat the 6 teams that are ahead of you, then you should not demand more quotas, but start playing stronger.

[Sithara007]

I am for meritocracy - the strongest (UEFA zone) should receive more tickets. How much this is a debatable question, but it can be clarified separately. The situation when some 7th strongest team from Africa does not get to the final part of the World Cup and this is considered unfair is absurd. If you cannot beat the 6 teams that are ahead of you, then you should not demand more quotas, but start playing stronger.

Agree with this. The real issue is with the continent based qualification process. Ideally, there should be a second round of qualification. Out of the 48 slots for the 2026 world cup, 50% (or 24 slots) can be decided on the basis of confederation-level qualifier tournaments. IMO, the remaining 24 slots should come from a second round of global qualifying event. Now this takes care of two issues: since 24 teams come from the first round, none of the continents will lose representation. And then, since there is a global qualifier, weaker teams will get kicked out and only the stronger teams will qualify.

[joker_josue]

I am for meritocracy - the strongest (UEFA zone) should receive more tickets. How much this is a debatable question, but it can be clarified separately. The situation when some 7th strongest team from Africa does not get to the final part of the World Cup and this is considered unfair is absurd. If you cannot beat the 6 teams that are ahead of you, then you should not demand more quotas, but start playing stronger.

Then. I agree too. This is what makes Europe (via UEFA) end up having more countries in the World Cup than other continents.

Of course, financial issues also weigh, but reality also shows that it is in Europe that the strongest national teams are located.

Agree with this. The real issue is with the continent based qualification process. Ideally, there should be a second round of qualification. Out of the 48 slots for the 2026 world cup, 50% (or 24 slots) can be decided on the basis of confederation-level qualifier tournaments. IMO, the remaining 24 slots should come from a second round of global qualifying event. Now this takes care of two issues: since 24 teams come from the first round, none of the continents will lose representation. And then, since there is a global qualifier, weaker teams will get kicked out and only the stronger teams will qualify.

It could be an interesting model. But then we come back to the same question: how were the quotas distributed across the continents of these 24 places?

What I think has already been talked about, was the UEFA Nations League tournament, which is an intermediate tournament between the Euro Cups, if it can expand to the world level and be used to help the classification of the World Cup. Maybe that might even be interesting.

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However, for those who like accounts and want to know the points model for the FIFA ranking, here is all the information:
https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/f99da4f73212220/original/edbm045h0udbwkqew35a-pdf.pdf

[Daniel91]

As for the problem of how many teams qualify from each continent, there should be an objective score deciding this, factoring in past performances. I agre having inter-continental play-offs is the wrong way to that.

Normally, the ranking of the countries of each federation is used to define the quotas. In recent years they have not made major changes to the quotas, with changes planned for the next World Cup in 2026.

I have a feeling that quotas by continent are not based on the quality of national teams, but there are other reasons for this.
There is an obvious tendency for more and more national teams to participate in the World Cup, and for the World Cup to be held more often, even every two years.
The reasons for such decisions are not sporting but purely financial in nature.
Earnings are the most important for FIFA, not sports motives or the development of football, and they have been known for corruption for a very long time.

[joker_josue]

I have a feeling that quotas by continent are not based on the quality of national teams, but there are other reasons for this.
There is an obvious tendency for more and more national teams to participate in the World Cup, and for the World Cup to be held more often, even every two years.
The reasons for such decisions are not sporting but purely financial in nature.
Earnings are the most important for FIFA, not sports motives or the development of football, and they have been known for corruption for a very long time.

Attention, I agree with you. But the two things end up going together.

Which continent has the most countries with the best football quality? Europe.
On which continent do the best players in the world play? Europe.
What nationality are most of the world's great players? Most are from European countries.
Which continent will generate the most revenue in the football market? Europe.

That is, despite knowing that FIFA moves where the money is. It is also in Europe that you will find the best players, the best leagues and the best clubs in the world. In turn, those with the most good national teams.

Of course, the less investment there is in other continents, and the less projection players outside Europe have, the harder it will be for more countries to become great in the world of football.

[KTChampions]

I am for meritocracy - the strongest (UEFA zone) should receive more tickets. How much this is a debatable question, but it can be clarified separately. The situation when some 7th strongest team from Africa does not get to the final part of the World Cup and this is considered unfair is absurd. If you cannot beat the 6 teams that are ahead of you, then you should not demand more quotas, but start playing stronger.

Agree with this. The real issue is with the continent based qualification process. Ideally, there should be a second round of qualification. Out of the 48 slots for the 2026 world cup, 50% (or 24 slots) can be decided on the basis of confederation-level qualifier tournaments. IMO, the remaining 24 slots should come from a second round of global qualifying event. Now this takes care of two issues: since 24 teams come from the first round, none of the continents will lose representation. And then, since there is a global qualifier, weaker teams will get kicked out and only the stronger teams will qualify.

Great idea. Just in this case, the second round of qualification (global) will be a kind of world championship for weak teams. And I would love to see how, for example, "average" teams in Africa play against similar teams from America, Europe and Oceania. It would be super interesting. I think everyone is tired of watching the teams constantly boil in the same cauldron of confederation tournaments.

[sana54210]

I have a feeling that quotas by continent are not based on the quality of national teams, but there are other reasons for this.
There is an obvious tendency for more and more national teams to participate in the World Cup, and for the World Cup to be held more often, even every two years.
The reasons for such decisions are not sporting but purely financial in nature.
Earnings are the most important for FIFA, not sports motives or the development of football, and they have been known for corruption for a very long time.

UEFA could be corrupted and Fifa may not be as corrupted as that much but still quite corrupted considering how they picked Qatar because they got bribed. However, we also should realize that without money, football wouldn't exist at this level. Look at teams and owners these days, we are seeing teams that are actually losing left and right every single year and then get bought by super rich but shady people and suddenly being better.

Just recently Newcastle was bought by the same people who killed a journalist for telling the truth, hell even if he was telling a lie you don't kill people. So if Fifa is shady and bad, then it is a bit about us and how we approach money in football, we like to see our teams succeed, we want to see Neymar to play with mbappe, we want Messi to go there as well etc etc, so we approach money in football as success and we do not check where that money came from.

[perfect999]

The real issue is with the continent based qualification process. Ideally, there should be a second round of qualification. Out of the 48 slots for the 2026 world cup, 50% (or 24 slots) can be decided on the basis of confederation-level qualifier tournaments. IMO, the remaining 24 slots should come from a second round of global qualifying event. Now this takes care of two issues: since 24 teams come from the first round, none of the continents will lose representation. And then, since there is a global qualifier, weaker teams will get kicked out and only the stronger teams will qualify.

Great idea. Just in this case, the second round of qualification (global) will be a kind of world championship for weak teams. And I would love to see how, for example, "average" teams in Africa play against similar teams from America, Europe and Oceania. It would be super interesting. I think everyone is tired of watching the teams constantly boil in the same cauldron of confederation tournaments.

Surely it's very good and acceptable idea, but it's not easy for anyone to do this all because this need very long process and some good hassle for FIFA and other Federations as well with we already have very packed leagues seasons and very small window for International matches it's not easy to do this all specially when we are going to have covid19 issue around us, and it's not going to leave us normal in long term basis. Still, very good as we will have some tough competitions and many new teams will also have some chance to quality for next round with have equal basis chance against good teams.

[KTChampions]

Great idea. Just in this case, the second round of qualification (global) will be a kind of world championship for weak teams. And I would love to see how, for example, "average" teams in Africa play against similar teams from America, Europe and Oceania. It would be super interesting. I think everyone is tired of watching the teams constantly boil in the same cauldron of confederation tournaments.

Surely it's very good and acceptable idea, but it's not easy for anyone to do this all because this need very long process and some good hassle for FIFA and other Federations as well with we already have very packed leagues seasons and very small window for International matches it's not easy to do this all specially when we are going to have covid19 issue around us, and it's not going to leave us normal in long term basis. Still, very good as we will have some tough competitions and many new teams will also have some chance to quality for next round with have equal basis chance against good teams.

To be honest, I do not understand such reasons "it's difficult." It turns out that FIFA wants to hold the World Cup every two years and it's not difficult (although this is complete nonsense), but is it difficult to make logical transformations? I think it's a matter of desire. From a business point of view, such changes will be beneficial to everyone and will greatly increase the interest of viewers in the qualifying matches.

[Marvell1]

Great idea. Just in this case, the second round of qualification (global) will be a kind of world championship for weak teams. And I would love to see how, for example, "average" teams in Africa play against similar teams from America, Europe and Oceania. It would be super interesting. I think everyone is tired of watching the teams constantly boil in the same cauldron of confederation tournaments.

Surely it's very good and acceptable idea, but it's not easy for anyone to do this all because this need very long process and some good hassle for FIFA and other Federations as well with we already have very packed leagues seasons and very small window for International matches it's not easy to do this all specially when we are going to have covid19 issue around us, and it's not going to leave us normal in long term basis. Still, very good as we will have some tough competitions and many new teams will also have some chance to quality for next round with have equal basis chance against good teams.

To be honest, I do not understand such reasons "it's difficult." It turns out that FIFA wants to hold the World Cup every two years and it's not difficult (although this is complete nonsense), but is it difficult to make logical transformations? I think it's a matter of desire. From a business point of view, such changes will be beneficial to everyone and will greatly increase the interest of viewers in the qualifying matches.

From my point of view, the world cup is something precious. As it comes once every 4 years, it has a meaning to people.
Generally, the team wins the world cup, is the best team and that's the way it should be regardless of the players that team has.

Now imagine that the world cup happens once every 2 years then it didn't have that type of importance to anyone. And people have passed a lot of difficult times before, and I don't see any reason to suddenly make the world cup happen once every two years. Seems like money is never enough for FIFA, is it?

[uneng]

Great idea. Just in this case, the second round of qualification (global) will be a kind of world championship for weak teams. And I would love to see how, for example, "average" teams in Africa play against similar teams from America, Europe and Oceania. It would be super interesting. I think everyone is tired of watching the teams constantly boil in the same cauldron of confederation tournaments.

Surely it's very good and acceptable idea, but it's not easy for anyone to do this all because this need very long process and some good hassle for FIFA and other Federations as well with we already have very packed leagues seasons and very small window for International matches it's not easy to do this all specially when we are going to have covid19 issue around us, and it's not going to leave us normal in long term basis. Still, very good as we will have some tough competitions and many new teams will also have some chance to quality for next round with have equal basis chance against good teams.

To be honest, I do not understand such reasons "it's difficult." It turns out that FIFA wants to hold the World Cup every two years and it's not difficult (although this is complete nonsense), but is it difficult to make logical transformations? I think it's a matter of desire. From a business point of view, such changes will be beneficial to everyone and will greatly increase the interest of viewers in the qualifying matches.

It's really easy to implement, but FIFA isn't going to do this, because it's a polemical transformation which will potentially generate a lot of attacks from the global media and representatives of weaker soccer confederations against FIFA for racism, xenophobia and so on... In the end it becomes a difficult decision to be made in order to apply changes to the cup's rules.

Of course the person in front of it will be under several risk of having his reputation completely ruined.

[Sithara007]

To be honest, I do not understand such reasons "it's difficult." It turns out that FIFA wants to hold the World Cup every two years and it's not difficult (although this is complete nonsense), but is it difficult to make logical transformations? I think it's a matter of desire. From a business point of view, such changes will be beneficial to everyone and will greatly increase the interest of viewers in the qualifying matches.

I'd be overjoyed if FIFA decides to stage a world cup every two years. Look at players like Cristiano Ronaldo. There is a very good chance that he may not get a chance to play in the 2022 World Cup. At least in his case, he has participated in previous tournaments. And there are several legendary players who has never got an opportunity to play in the world cup. The expansion of world cup to 48 teams, and reducing the interval to 2 years are going to help definitely in this regard.

And my proposal for the second batch of 24 teams from a global qualifier was not for a new tournament. I proposed it as a replacement for some of the confederation-level qualifiers.   

[rahmad2nd]

To be honest, I do not understand such reasons "it's difficult." It turns out that FIFA wants to hold the World Cup every two years and it's not difficult (although this is complete nonsense), but is it difficult to make logical transformations? I think it's a matter of desire. From a business point of view, such changes will be beneficial to everyone and will greatly increase the interest of viewers in the qualifying matches.

I'd be overjoyed if FIFA decides to stage a world cup every two years. Look at players like Cristiano Ronaldo. There is a very good chance that he may not get a chance to play in the 2022 World Cup. At least in his case, he has participated in previous tournaments. And there are several legendary players who has never got an opportunity to play in the world cup. The expansion of world cup to 48 teams, and reducing the interval to 2 years are going to help definitely in this regard.

And my proposal for the second batch of 24 teams from a global qualifier was not for a new tournament. I proposed it as a replacement for some of the confederation-level qualifiers.   

I see not really competitive if World cup held each two years and have 48 countries participant because looks not interested and very boring, beside how many player not really happy if world cup held each two years and absolutely will have many competitive on every years if held each two years, we can see EURO, ASIAN CUP, AFRICAN CUP and CONMEBOL will held on every year where player not have enough time for recovery, I think ideas world cup held each two years from FIFA president just take care with money only because they can earn much money if success held on each two years.

[asus09]

I am for meritocracy - the strongest (UEFA zone) should receive more tickets. How much this is a debatable question, but it can be clarified separately. The situation when some 7th strongest team from Africa does not get to the final part of the World Cup and this is considered unfair is absurd. If you cannot beat the 6 teams that are ahead of you, then you should not demand more quotas, but start playing stronger.

Agree with this. The real issue is with the continent based qualification process. Ideally, there should be a second round of qualification. Out of the 48 slots for the 2026 world cup, 50% (or 24 slots) can be decided on the basis of confederation-level qualifier tournaments. IMO, the remaining 24 slots should come from a second round of global qualifying event. Now this takes care of two issues: since 24 teams come from the first round, none of the continents will lose representation. And then, since there is a global qualifier, weaker teams will get kicked out and only the stronger teams will qualify.

FIFA's proposal to hold a world cup event every 2 years is indeed a good idea, for those of us who love football, we strongly agree with fifa's proposal, but from the club and player perspective, it is certain that we will reject fifa's policy, the players will be overwhelmed, because the players no longer exist because they no longer have time off with their families, and the club will lose money, because players who are bought at high prices, will be prone to injury, and their fitness will also decline, especially the EPL league which has a busy schedule, of course they the first to oppose fifa policies..

[Swordsoffreedom]

I am for meritocracy - the strongest (UEFA zone) should receive more tickets. How much this is a debatable question, but it can be clarified separately. The situation when some 7th strongest team from Africa does not get to the final part of the World Cup and this is considered unfair is absurd. If you cannot beat the 6 teams that are ahead of you, then you should not demand more quotas, but start playing stronger.

Agree with this. The real issue is with the continent based qualification process. Ideally, there should be a second round of qualification. Out of the 48 slots for the 2026 world cup, 50% (or 24 slots) can be decided on the basis of confederation-level qualifier tournaments. IMO, the remaining 24 slots should come from a second round of global qualifying event. Now this takes care of two issues: since 24 teams come from the first round, none of the continents will lose representation. And then, since there is a global qualifier, weaker teams will get kicked out and only the stronger teams will qualify.

FIFA's proposal to hold a world cup event every 2 years is indeed a good idea, for those of us who love football, we strongly agree with fifa's proposal, but from the club and player perspective, it is certain that we will reject fifa's policy, the players will be overwhelmed, because the players no longer exist because they no longer have time off with their families, and the club will lose money, because players who are bought at high prices, will be prone to injury, and their fitness will also decline, especially the EPL league which has a busy schedule, of course they the first to oppose fifa policies..

It is obvious because players do have to stay healthy to play and with the world cup happening every two years they will face a lot of health issues.

And we have to remember that the world cup once every four years is a lifelong tradition and it has been in going on since the start so it will be hard for the players to adapt to such a thing.

We have already seen a lot of players with great potential get lost in time because of injuries. And honestly, we do not want to see that anymore and if the world cup happens once every two years it is more likely to happen.

[Juggy777]

I am for meritocracy - the strongest (UEFA zone) should receive more tickets. How much this is a debatable question, but it can be clarified separately. The situation when some 7th strongest team from Africa does not get to the final part of the World Cup and this is considered unfair is absurd. If you cannot beat the 6 teams that are ahead of you, then you should not demand more quotas, but start playing stronger.

Agree with this. The real issue is with the continent based qualification process. Ideally, there should be a second round of qualification. Out of the 48 slots for the 2026 world cup, 50% (or 24 slots) can be decided on the basis of confederation-level qualifier tournaments. IMO, the remaining 24 slots should come from a second round of global qualifying event. Now this takes care of two issues: since 24 teams come from the first round, none of the continents will lose representation. And then, since there is a global qualifier, weaker teams will get kicked out and only the stronger teams will qualify.

FIFA's proposal to hold a world cup event every 2 years is indeed a good idea, for those of us who love football, we strongly agree with fifa's proposal, but from the club and player perspective, it is certain that we will reject fifa's policy, the players will be overwhelmed, because the players no longer exist because they no longer have time off with their families, and the club will lose money, because players who are bought at high prices, will be prone to injury, and their fitness will also decline, especially the EPL league which has a busy schedule, of course they the first to oppose fifa policies..

@asus09 I don’t agree with you and no one who loves this sport will, because the World Cup is precious because it’s played only one time in four year’s, and by playing it in every two year’s they’re killing the glory associated with this cup and I’ll be totally disappointed if they succeed.

Also you don’t understand if it’s every two year’s there’s no competition for the place’s, the player’s will skip it as there’s no glory left in it and slowly we’ll see b team playing for their country’s, and then we’ll truly regret why didn’t we stop this from happening but it’ll be too late.

[casperBGD]

~snip
FIFA's proposal to hold a world cup event every 2 years is indeed a good idea

it is probably good for earning additional money, and nothing else
with 2 years period between world cups, where do you fit continental cups (Euro, Copa America, AFCON that is currently held?)

and we already seen that too many matches is taking its toll on players, that are having more and more troubles with their health, 2 years between world cups would make that more serious
on the other side, football is business, and a profitable one, and they are trying to make it more profitable

[joker_josue]

it is probably good for earning additional money, and nothing else
with 2 years period between world cups, where do you fit continental cups (Euro, Copa America, AFCON that is currently held?)

Part of FIFA's claims is that this will generate more revenue and in turn they will be able to distribute the money better across the federations.
They want to reduce the number of qualifications, and to be able to distribute the test places better.

Despite all these claims, few people connected to football can understand the advantages.

One thing is for sure, club and country competitions will almost certainly soon undergo profound changes. Will it be good for the show and for the fans? We'll see...

[fuguebtc]

it is probably good for earning additional money, and nothing else
with 2 years period between world cups, where do you fit continental cups (Euro, Copa America, AFCON that is currently held?)

Part of FIFA's claims is that this will generate more revenue and in turn they will be able to distribute the money better across the federations.
They want to reduce the number of qualifications, and to be able to distribute the test places better.

Despite all these claims, few people connected to football can understand the advantages.

One thing is for sure, club and country competitions will almost certainly soon undergo profound changes. Will it be good for the show and for the fans? We'll see...

Actually, the world cup once every 2 years is not a really good idea at least for the long term. In short term, it will look really good because there will certainly be a flow of money and would people might also be really interested in the first few times but eventually people are going to love interest and the flow of money will also be less.

And also the players are going to be much more injury-prone. It is already sad to see players getting injured and missing a lot of their prime times. And obviously arranging the other competitions are going to be tough as well.

[KTChampions]

To be honest, I do not understand such reasons "it's difficult." It turns out that FIFA wants to hold the World Cup every two years and it's not difficult (although this is complete nonsense), but is it difficult to make logical transformations? I think it's a matter of desire. From a business point of view, such changes will be beneficial to everyone and will greatly increase the interest of viewers in the qualifying matches.

From my point of view, the world cup is something precious. As it comes once every 4 years, it has a meaning to people.
Generally, the team wins the world cup, is the best team and that's the way it should be regardless of the players that team has.

Now imagine that the world cup happens once every 2 years then it didn't have that type of importance to anyone. And people have passed a lot of difficult times before, and I don't see any reason to suddenly make the world cup happen once every two years. Seems like money is never enough for FIFA, is it?

Sure. Changing the play period will nullify the value of the tournament and turn it into the Ice Hockey World Championship, which is the NHL's cesspool.

I'd be overjoyed if FIFA decides to stage a world cup every two years. Look at players like Cristiano Ronaldo. There is a very good chance that he may not get a chance to play in the 2022 World Cup. At least in his case, he has participated in previous tournaments. And there are several legendary players who has never got an opportunity to play in the world cup. The expansion of world cup to 48 teams, and reducing the interval to 2 years are going to help definitely in this regard.

And my proposal for the second batch of 24 teams from a global qualifier was not for a new tournament. I proposed it as a replacement for some of the confederation-level qualifiers.   

Why worry about the fact that not all players get to the World Cup when we have club football and everyone understands that the real struggle is there? National football is a kind of lottery, just a beautiful carnival, you should not take it seriously.