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© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015.Asia throws up intriguing World Cup qualifiers
KUALA LUMPUR©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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Gary Raynor
Too many Asian teams qualify for the world cup finals. Qualification should be based on merit, not region.
There should be more European, South American and African teams going to the finals, and less second rate Asian teams.
Look what Australia did to ease its chances of qualification; it moved from the Oceania qualification group to the Asian qualification groups.
fds
yes, but do you think fifa will be wiling to give up the money? not likely...
Dan Lewis
The title of this article makes me want to puke.
Argus Tuft
It's arguable that FIFA were swayed by the 31-0 game against American Samoa in 2001 to include Australia in the AFC. Which underscores the need for a preliminary round for the weaker teams in any given federation but the weaker teams still deserve a chance to play stronger teams.
Australia still qualified as a part of Oceania (2006) by beating a stronger team (Uruguay) before moving to Asia. for the following World Cup qualifiers.
What can you do? Bhutan deserves the chance to play against Japan, just as Japan deserves the chance to play against Brazil.
African teams -sure. Europe and South America are pretty well represented, if we make more spots available to UEFA and CONMEBOL - yeah it might be more fun to watch on TV but how are the smaller and weaker countries ever going to get better or get more interested in football ?
LostinNagoya
Everybody should get a chance to play against stronger teams, after all it's a WORLD Cup, not BEST of the World Cup. That said, confederations with tens of national teams, like Asia, should have a "'pre-qualifying" tournment disputed by the weaker teams, and then they would join the stronger ones in the final stage.
1glenn
Over 60% of all people live in Asia, so it makes sense that a lot of Asian teams should be competing.