I
indianspur
Guest
Botswana, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, Libya, Uganda, Liberia, Angola, Mozambique and Malawi
Do me a favour
they did produce
Botswana, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, Libya, Uganda, Liberia, Angola, Mozambique and Malawi
Do me a favour
The African countries have too many spots at the WC. Probably to make sure the FIFA president get their votes. After the abysmal showing in 2010, combined with South American teams doing really well, you might think it would be reduced, but no.
Do you know the average FIFA rankings for these countries?
How is playing lower / non-league standard football going to improve Africa's showing at the world cup?
Why does it bother you though?
Because I find watching the same countries win the World Cup very tedious
Excluding the most recent world cup, only 5 teams have won it
And only 1 other team has even made the final (Netherlands)
I would prefer better (more diverse) competition
8 winners (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, England)
4 losers (Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, Czechoslovakia)
12 losing semi finalists (USA, Austria, Yugoslavia, Chile, Portugal, Soviet, Poland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Turkey, South Korea)
That's quite a bit of diversity.
Sorry I meant to say in the last 40 years
Botswana, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, Libya, Uganda, Liberia, Angola, Mozambique and Malawi
Do me a favour
Sorry I meant to say in the last 40 years
I'm not even sure if some of the countries you list exist any more
5 winners over the course of 10 tournaments isn't bad i don't think - taking into account the length of a players career
unfortunately politics also had a big effect - you look at the like of Czecheslovakia and USSR and wonder how good they would have been if it hadn't been for what happened to those countries.
Or Yugoslavia.
Take the cream of Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Slovenia and you'll have a squad of players as good as anywhere in Europe.
Everybody is missing the point
African football will not improve with regular ACNs
Quite the opposite. African players should spend more time with European clubs
This will ultimately produce stronger national teams
Playing a tin pot tournament will not increase their WC allocation
Its more likely to maintain the status quo
Because its a second rate tournament
Every two years to watch a bunch of brick countries play league one quality football is excessive
If they were any good they would play in the WORLD cup
true.....has anyone ever explained why the ACN is now every 2 years. Crazy
They've nearly always held it every two years (a couple of three year gaps and a couple of one year gaps). Its also older than the UEFA tournament so tradition is the answer.
However, if the clubs are forced to release players by FIFA rule, they need to harmonize the calendar, either by moving the ACN or making an international break for all.
My solution is to revamp the international calendar. I hate the stop start nature and find the sporadic international uninteresting, but enjoy the tournaments. And the international games at the beginning of the season are annoying.
Instead of many short breaks we should have two or three international blocks a year. The World Cup/Euro time would be one of them, the ANC winter schedule could be another and say the a third at the beginning of the season. In each block you could play a friendly and 3-4 qualifying games over three weeks (Thurs, Mon, Fri, Tues, Sat). That would give five blocks for each tournament played by European clubs (two autumn, two winter and one summer block in tournament off-seasons), leaving room for a few byes.
That way the qualifying could be organised as mini-tournaments and the club season wouldn't be repeatedly disrupted, while the ACN could continue in its traditional spot.
I'd favour a month/six weeks at the end of the season for internationals. It would give international coaches time to work with the players and would not interfere with the domestic calendar. It would be a bugger if a player was injured during this period but thems the breaks.