England v Latvia

Club teams are put in leagues of similar ability. International groups have far too many mismatched teams. Park the bus, go 1-0 down, don't go for an equaliser, keep parking the bus and be happy to lose with as few goals conceded as possible.

 

Or park the bus badly and get hammered. Neither is satisfactory. But the alternative - no seedings - is equally problematic. Kazakhstan and Estonia qualify from the European section because the other teams in their group were Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and San Marino. Meanwhile, Germany, Holland and England won't be going to the World Cup, because they were drawn together with Spain and France. Hardly ideal.

 

I admit it would lead to a far more intriguing qualifying competition. But as I mentioned in another post, if all the European heavyweights got drawn in one group and all the minnows in another, it would inevitably lead to an overall reduction of the quality of the finals. Having said that, a 48 team competition will already contain some absolute toss. Tonga v Faroe Islands would be a clash for the ages.

 

The last couple of tournaments I've thought the games involving the minnows have been decent.

 

FIFA will address the problem by renaming Corners to Lineouts.

Also, this stupid rule of only one layer of paint on the ball needs to be over the corner quadrant. Some of the placements are a joke. Maybe the middle of the ball should be over the middle of the line, to make it simple.

 

Isn’t the argument that they get tougher opponents. Are more easily scouted by the better leagues so get better training etc.

 

It's no different to domestic league football then.