World Cup Qualifiers - Time for Change in Europe?

So another round of World Cup qualifiers took place over the last week and the same subject airs once again. Yes the question of the lower rank teams and their place in the World Cup Qualifier. San Marino, Liechtenstein, Faroe Isles, Malta, Luxembourg, Andorra all find themselves finishing bottom of their respective qualifying groups.

What does a nation gain from playing against Malta apart from improving the goal difference and guaranteeing themselves 3 points from the home and away ties to add needless injury possibilities? The answer is nothing. The bigger nations aren’t tested and therefore apart from the minnows getting a bit of extra cash and tv coverage they wouldn’t get, the only thing they really see is a severely negative goal difference.

There is no real reason for the smaller sides in the European qualification zone not to have to go through qualifiers to take their place. Fifa place other smaller nations in prelim qualifiers around the world, so why should low rating European minnows be exempt. I’m sure Club managers would be rather happier knowing that their players would be playing two less meaningless international games during the season. There are 53 member nations that take place in the draw and in reality that should be down to 45 who take part in the qualifiers for the World Cup. This could see the lowest 10 nations in UEFA playing to qualify for two places in the qualifiers.

If this were to happen,  come the next UEFA qualifying draw we would see the following nations taking part in a qualifying round.

Azerbaijan

Moldova

Cyprus

Kazakhstan

Malta

Luxembourg

Faroe Isle

Liechtenstein

Andorra

Monaco.

Some people may say that this would penalize the part time nations as we know they would not be good enough, but at the end of the day we want matches and tests, we don’t want walkovers and three guaranteed points. It may also change the face of qualifying and make things a little more interesting without the teams who supply nothing but goal difference bonuses. Admittedly this is something that I cant see happen, but we can always hope.