International "Waste of Time" Games

[res]

 So England are playing San Marino on Thursday in a "competitive" Qualifying Game...a team who have conceded 268 away goals since they last scored away. The football pundits are talking it up...but everyone knows it's a waste of time. It doesn't do England much good (apart from boosting the goals tally--but everyone does that against San Marino), doesn't do San Marino any good and is a con on paying supporters who will not see a competitive game. And Roy H/Gary L/Adrian C have to keep spurting out the need to treat San Marino with respect, mustn't take anything for granted etc

Surely the solution is to do what cricket/rugby does for World Cups...seed such countries into a separate tournament and let a couple through. For example San Marino/Gibraltar/Luxemburg/Liechtenstein/Andorra/Faroe Islands could be in a pre qualifying "minnow" group with only 1/2 going through to the proper stages. Each country has the opportunity of developing their games against counties with reasonably similar standards, and would therefore stand a better chance in the qualifying stages. Cricket does this, which has allowed countries like Ireland, Netherlands, Canada, Kenya to develop their game, similarly rugby for countries such as Japan/Canada/USA.

In the meantime watch out for the avalanche of goals on Thursday....but so what?

[Putney]

Whilst I agree with your sentiment, why would UEFA or FIFA rock the boat? Football doesn't have to go down the path that rugby and cricket do because it's globally so popular, it isn't trying to gain a foothold in countries. There's going to be little return on investment from improving the game in tiny European countries like San Marino and Liechtenstein.

[jarv]

I was worried this might happen a few years ago because my country, Scotland, might have joined the minnows. (same for Wales and NI.). :005:

[MJG]

Totally agree on the lower seeded teams being in their own group(s). It would improve them i think.
But problem is a financial one, these smaller FA's survive on income from the home and away games against bigger countries.

Also i would not have any internationals during the season. Season would run from Aug-end of April.
Then 1 week for international teams to get together, maybe 2 friendly games in a week.
Then play all the group games 8-10 games in the space of 4-5 weeks. All over by mid June.

Do that for the Euro's and then WC's. keeps season free, lets teams get used to being in a tournament type competition every year.

[Aaron]

I often wondered if having the likes of San Marino in your group could be a bad thing if you have to play them early on.  Let's say you have Germany and England both in a group which includes both San Marino and a few other fairly tricky teams. 

Now let's say England play San Marino first and knowing it's 3 points in the bag regardless decide to hand out debuts to 6 or 7 youngsters and play an oddball system.  England might win 4-0 but they could have knocked in 10 or 15 if they'd actually went all out.  Germany on the other hand play San Marino last when they're trailing England on goal difference and stick out the World Cup final lineup and beat them 18-0.

If you keep this in mind then you really cannot afford to take games against the minnows lightly..

[Slaphead in Qatar]

hate international week. miss following fulham and watching a few pl games on tv.

[HatterDon]

It certainly isn't a waste of time for The Faroe Islands, San Marino, Lichtenstein, et. al. These matches fund their FAs and make league and non-league football possible in their countries.

Kind of a parochial point of view, if you don't mind me saying.

[Forever Fulham]

San Marino fields a respectable team for a country of only, what, 37,000.  Those guys are semi-pros.  Waiters, brick layers, salesmen, desk jockeys.  They don't have skilled dribblers, but they defend like crazy.  To me, they are what this game once was, and nobly so.

[Deanothefulhamfan]

Really interesting topic.... On one hand the smaller teams will benefit by playing games against an opposition on a similar level, thus having more chance to compete and have more time on the ball etc. However on the other hand it really does the opposite of benefiting them, as they will lose revenue from the big games, and may dash the hopes and dreams of players and fans getting to see them perform against world cup winners / European cup winners etc. It may be good for us ( England) but not so much for the minnows of European football.