soccer

Asia demands more World Cup places

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They ''deserve'' it if they earn it. Asia is generally bad at the sport and no one wants to see the quality of this international competition diluted just to please a few fat cats and sponsors and fans who don't know that their team is mediocre (Hello, Japan) at best. Let in some more scrubs? Please don't.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

As it well should be ! After all, it IS called the WORLD cup !

1 ( +3 / -2 )

so Asia gets 4 of the 32. I assume 1 slot goes to the host. 1 perhaps to the previous champions. How are the rest allotted? Why isn't that included in the article? It certainly seems to be key information. (More so than how China is spending money)

mrph mrph grumble grumble. Now I have to google it myself.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@tajHow are the rest allotted?

I posted that some time ago in the comments of another article, so here just a copy of it. On the left you have the number of teams that get to participate in the World Cup from each continent. On the right side are the number of teams participating in the qualifiers.

Now Asia has for example 4.5 slots. Why .5? 4 teams will qualify directly while the 5th team has to beat the best team from Oceania. Yes, Oceania doesn't even get one full slot. One team first hase to get the first spot in Oceania and then beat the 5th from Asia...It is similar for one team from North, Central America and Caribbean that has to play against one team from South America. Added to those 31 teams comes the host.

Europe: 13/54

Africa: 5/53

Asia: 4.5/46

North, Central America and Caribbean: 3.5/35

Oceania: 0.5/11

South America: 4.5/10

1 ( +1 / -0 )

This is nonsense. Asia should actually get fewer places at the tournament until they can prove that at least 2 teams can make it into the later rounds. The part about being the biggest continent is also nonsense. Imagine if the basketball, ice hockey or baseball world championships had most of the teams in a championship due to population! Mongolia versus Indonesia for the world ice hockey title!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"But he warned that the distribution of slots must be based on “clear and transparent foundations".

And by clear and transparent he means based on $. Asia will get their fair share but do not deserve any favor based on $ or population alone. The 2 biggest countries on this planet may be in Asia, the fact remains they are rubbish or just ok (china) at football.

3-4 spots out of 16 seems fair. Anything over would be a disgrace.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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