UEFA euro 2016

[lolIsuck]

The van Persie own goal is probably the symbol of this Dutch qualifying campaign. Losing half your games is just pathetic, I mean Iceland, Czech Republic and Turkey are half-decent countries and you can lose points against them but only 3 points against those 3 opponents as well as a draw against Latvia, one might as well quit playing football.

On the plus side, now they can't fail horribly on the EC like last time.

[Basil II the B.S]

Lol true. I love the Dutch people positive attitude.
Hopefully better luck from next September.

[Pinarius]

Hungary qualified as well, first time since forever.

They didn't, because of a late goal in the match between Turkey and Iceland and also because Latvia became last in their group after the final match against the greatest country of the world aka Kazakhstan.

[Basil II the B.S]

Oh so Turkey is in as best third. Cool.

[Treva ★]

World Cup with 48 countries makes more sense for the reason you mentioned. For now even mid tier European teams are too good for most of Asia, Caribbeans and Africa. And I'm not even taking Oceania in the account. Leaving good European teams out to make room for crappier ones is stupid, adding more rooms for others is more acceptable.
Euro 24 is just plain dumb.
Especially when to justify the high number in the finals you add Gibraltar, Kazakhstan (no offense, go back to Asia) or similar in the qualifiers.

Never forget Liechtenstein and San Marino! But you can't have half the berths in the WC be European, what happens when the Asians and Africans catch up?

The van Persie own goal is probably the symbol of this Dutch qualifying campaign. Losing half your games is just pathetic, I mean Iceland, Czech Republic and Turkey are half-decent countries and you can lose points against them but only 3 points against those 3 opponents as well as a draw against Latvia, one might as well quit playing football.

On the plus side, now they can't fail horribly on the EC like last time.

…And only last year, they were unbeaten in the WC and third-placed, thrashing Spain and Brazil along the way.

Oh so Turkey is in as best third. Cool.

Curiously enough, the qualifying procedure for a 24-team Euro is as weird as the 24-team World Cup's group stages where some but not all third-placed teams would get in, e.g. Argentina losing to Bulgaria.

[Basil II the B.S]

Never forget Liechtenstein and San Marino! But you can't have half the berths in the WC be European, what happens when the Asians and Africans catch up?

Then Europe will start losing spots in favour of them, simple as that. It's a process that might happen but it's going to take a loooong time.
Japan and S.Korea are the best Asian teams and they have been investing for 2 decades in football, however they are still comparable to European mid tier.
China is investing loads of money and they will most likely catch up with the Asian top in a decade, India started their professional league last year and it'll take at least 20 years to see them qualified in a WC, everyone else is far behind.
Africa still struggles with lack of resources and chaotic economic development, plus the recent Qatar predating talented kids.
Nigeria and South Africa are the two with the most potential, yet the first has failed to replace the number of talents they had in the 90s and the latter is already wasting all the investment they put in the WC they hosted.

[Sir Adrian]

Eh at least they caught up a bit, but going under 0-3 with a 1 man advantage is embarassing. Just like the whole Dutch campaign. Sad to say, deserved elimination.

1 man advantage is worse than no advantage. It gives you a false sense of security and causes you to be lax. I've rarely seen a team that didn't end up suffering because of it.

[Victor Restes]

1 man advantage is worse than no advantage. It gives you a false sense of security and causes you to be lax. I've rarely seen a team that didn't end up suffering because of it.

Right, but if I was one of the Falling Dutchmen, I wouldn't be so relaxed after the 0-1 and the 0-2, knowing that my team desperately needs a victory to make sure that the Czechs and the Turks will not become the Portuguese and the Irish of 2002.

Never forget Liechtenstein and San Marino!

And the Faroe Isl... oh, wait, rest in peace 2004 champions.

[Treva ★]

Then Europe will start losing spots in favour of them, simple as that. It's a process that might happen but it's going to take a loooong time.
Japan and S.Korea are the best Asian teams and they have been investing for 2 decades in football, however they are still comparable to European mid tier.
China is investing loads of money and they will most likely catch up with the Asian top in a decade, India started their professional league last year and it'll take at least 20 years to see them qualified in a WC, everyone else is far behind.
Africa still struggles with lack of resources and chaotic economic development, plus the recent Qatar predating talented kids.
Nigeria and South Africa are the two with the most potential, yet the first has failed to replace the number of talents they had in the 90s and the latter is already wasting all the investment they put in the WC they hosted.

Yes, but how would Europe lose the spots? Those spots aren't assigned in the same way that UEFA have been assigning their Champions League and Uefa Cup/Europa League berths for the last couple decades: they're fixed at random. No vote-buying involved, incidentally.

[Basil II the B.S]

Yes, but how would Europe lose the spots? Those spots aren't assigned in the same way that UEFA have been assigning their Champions League and Uefa Cup/Europa League berths for the last couple decades: they're fixed at random. No vote-buying involved, incidentally.

FIFA ranking adjusted by the size of continental federations? (That is simply to avoid CONMEBOL getting 10 spots out of 11 teams or so).

For example, right now in the top 48, 26 are European, more than half. Let's make an adjustment and a continent can't get more than 50% of the total. The rest are distributed among the other confederations according to their shares.

(Ok let's leave aside for a moment how ed up the FIFA ranking is.)

If other confederations start to catch up it'll be because their teams are rising in the ranking, thus they'll gain more spots.

[Treva ★]

Well, back when there were 24 teams 12 were European, plus the champions' berth, so every other edition of the Cup had 13/24 teams be from Europe. >_<

FIFA's rankings are so excremented-up that they can't be taken into consideration… and see how UEFA's using rankings for team competitions has meant that some leagues are condemned to never even getting near playing against decent competition.

No continental federation should get more than ten full spots, let the rest be decided by inter-continental playoffs instead of giving Europe all their internal play-offs. We could just solve it by reunifying the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia Czachoslovakia and, say, the Kalmar Union. Just sayin'.

[The Despondent Mind]

So Serbia once again showed to everybody that they are the single most incompetent team when you take the single player talent into account. It's almost comical that they haven't ever qualified (as Serbia) for the European championship and that every WC run was a debacle (discounting the win over Germany).

[Dude with the Food]

No continental federation should get more than ten full spots, let the rest be decided by inter-continental playoffs instead of giving Europe all their internal play-offs. We could just solve it by reunifying the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia Czachoslovakia and, say, the Kalmar Union. Just sayin'.

Because Belarus and Kazakhstan are regularly hogging places that could go to more deserving teams. A New Roman Empire would solve a lot of problems though.

[Treva ★]

So Serbia once again showed to everybody that they are the single most incompetent team when you take the single player talent into account. It's almost comical that they haven't ever qualified (as Serbia) for the European championship and that every WC run was a debacle (discounting the win over Germany).

Antić FTW!

Because Belarus and Kazakhstan are regularly hogging places that could go to more deserving teams. A New Roman Empire would solve a lot of problems though.

Great minds think alike, the capital at Constantinople as in the good old days… *sighs wistfully*

[Knight of Heaven]

People in Wc want to see the best teams. And most best teams are in Europe and American continent.
It simply exists a big quality gap, to warrant such Slot model.
There are countries in other continents that dont even have a national professional league, or championship. India for instance only started this year if im not mistaken.

[Pinarius]

So Norway lost the first play off match against Hungary.

[Treva ★]

Yeah, kindof.

[Ishoss]

Neither teams were impressive. Hungary looked semi-threatening on the break. Norway managed to create a few chances, especially one gigantic chance in the 5th minute which we should have buried. Norway had most of the play but, again, wasn't particularly threatening. Mark Clattenburg was a poor referee. Failed to give Omar Elabdelloui a clear penalty, and followed that up with booking him for a non-dive a few minutes later. The .

[Treva ★]

Ah, we get Liverpool supporters complaining about Clattenburg even when the Premier League is not being played… ahh, how refreshing after all the craziness.

Ukrainia-Slovenia. 2-0, good-ish but dangerous result.

[Ishoss]

Mark Clattenburg. I'll give him one thing: he's not afraid to not give important decisions in favor of a home team... Unless that team is Manchester United, of course.

Norway lost 3-1 in Hungary last night. Per-Mathias Høgmo, our coach, decided to field 11 ballerinas for a wrestling match. Never a good idea.