Ladies and gentlemen, over the last few months the growing Bom Senso FC movement in Brasil has had me thinking about the most pressing issue concerning world football today. It is not racism, goal line technology, or FIFA corruption, it is the quality of the game on the pitch due to the amount of games these great athletes play.
The answer at the club level is a bit more complicated but at the national team level the solution is simpler. As someone that likes to come up with solutions instead of whining & complaining about problems, I have come up with an answer that would be less exhausting on the players, increase the level of play & make particular tournaments even more interesting in the realm of the World Cup. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s begin.
#1 – DROP NUMBER OF WORLD CUP TEAMS FROM 32 to 16
Here is the confederation breakdown:
- UEFA & CONMEBOL each gets 4 teams
- CONCACAF & Africa each gets 3 teams
- Asia gets 1.5
- Oceania get .5
How are those teams determined? That leads to number two.
#2 – USE CONTINENTAL TOURNAMENTS TO DETERMINE WC SPOTS
- UEFA & CONMEBOL: Semifinalists of both The Euro & Copa América would advance to the World Cup.
- African Cup of Nations & CONCACAF Gold Cup: Tournament finalists advance to WC and the winner of the 3rd place game moves on. Imagine that, a 3rd place game outside a World Cup that ACTUALLY means something.
- The champions of The AFC Asian Cup qualifies automatically and the beaten finalists/runners-up play the winner of OFC Nations Cup.
Attaching the World Cup qualifying to those incredible tournaments would only heighten the interest for those events and probably fatten the bank accounts of the organizers as well.
#3 – ELIMINATE
