FOOTBALL: Season 2006/07 Discussion Thread

Guru-Meditation · Post by **Guru-Meditation** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 11:35 pm 0

FUCK, somehow lost my entire post.

Ok summary is this, Northern Ireland by international standards are irrelevant. They only just finished above Moldova qualifying for the 2002WC, and below the mighty Armenia in either 2004 or 2000. I believe they hold the international record for longest goalless streak, and during that time went 16 games without a win.

Until recently they were crap. Take away the wins against Spain and England they probably still are (0-3 against Iceland at home?)

It's very easy to say the smaller teams should go through playoffs. But when you take off the bottom 16 teams you'll probably make a dent of a whole TWO MATCHES in the international schedule, during which the bigger teams will just host friendlies. To make a real dent you have to say something along the lines of those who don't qualify have to playoff against each other, or at least half, and I don't think the likes of Ireland, Wales and Scotland who are going through a rough spell will appreciate they qualifying process being over after a possible 2 matches. Or England should they have a dry spell like in the 90's.

It's short sighted snobbery that will come to bite us in the ass.

Flabio · Post by **Flabio** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 11:43 pm 0

For me, any country too small to have it's own league should have to pre-qualify.

Guru-Meditation · Post by **Guru-Meditation** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 11:45 pm 0

Define league. Every country in Europe has it's own league. Anyone else try to qualify for the Champions league with a team from San Marino in SWOS?

(by the way, only three leagues can't qualify for the Champions League. Liechenstein, Andorra and San Marino ... yep, the mighty teams of Malta and Luxembourg have teams in the Champions League)

Dio · Post by **Dio** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 11:46 pm 0

Flabio wrote:For me, any country too small to have it's own league should have to pre-qualify.

Easy to rig that one though.

I'd say "Any country small enough to fit its entire population in the Nou Camp, or putative future largest stadium in Europe."

Guru-Meditation · Post by **Guru-Meditation** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 11:51 pm 0

I feel this is a lot of effort to exclude a handful of teams from international competition. These same teams whose national associations probably depend on said games to keep their leagues afloat.

Dio · Post by **Dio** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 11:52 pm 0

Those well known pauper economies like Monaco and San Marino, eh? I'll give you the Faroe Islands mind.

Guru-Meditation · Post by **Guru-Meditation** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 11:55 pm 0

Monaco play in the French league. They don't have a national side. If they did they'd probably do a Qatar and buy a quality side to play for them.

Edit : And how quickly have Scotland forgotten drawing 2-2 against the Faroe Islands? One 6-0 and all is forgotten, ban the minnows!

Flabio · Post by **Flabio** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 11:58 pm 0

Monaco play in the French league, so they don't have a league of their own. Into the pre-qualifiers they go.

I'm not saying they can't play international football, I'm just saying who wants to go see everyone stick 10 goals past San Marino? What point does a team like that play in a group when everyone is going to take 6 points off them? There's way too many countries in UEFA now, it's only a matter of time before there's pre-qualifying.

The Australasian qualification for the world cup has 2 preliminary rounds because there are so many small nations involved.

goldfish · Post by **goldfish** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 12:08 am 0

Apparently Andorra took 4 points off Macedonia in the WC qualifying....

Simon

Guru-Meditation · Post by **Guru-Meditation** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 12:22 am 0

Yah well, Australia did win a game 33-0 once. You kinda see the point there. In Oceania the spectrum of difference between the top team (now New Zealand I believe) and the bottom team is much larger and more polarised than in Europe.

And Monaco don't have a national team.

Dio · Post by **Dio** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 12:48 am 0

Guru-Meditation wrote:Edit : And how quickly have Scotland forgotten drawing 2-2 against the Faroe Islands? One 6-0 and all is forgotten, ban the minnows!

Fine, and I'm sure they'll nick another point this time round off somebody. But not more than one. Have they ever finished above the bottom of the group when there hasn't been another midget team in?

I'm with Flabio; there's no point in the match. They didn't even bring any away supporters, so the argument of 'a big day in the sun' doesn't hold much water either.

goldfish · Post by **goldfish** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 12:50 am 0

Dio wrote:there's no point in the match. They didn't even bring any away supporters, so the argument of 'a big day in the sun' doesn't hold much water either.

Noone goes to Scotland for the sun.

Simon

Mat T · Post by **Mat T** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:00 am 0

Jesus wept, what a hattrick by David Healy tonight. Fantastic; the 3rd goal was a sublime finish.

Now if only he could do anything remotely like that for Leeds.

merman · Post by **merman** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 11:15 am 0

goatboy wrote:Who is responsible for preventing the English from watching their national matches?

Time was all competetive games had to be terrestrial. What of those who can't get sky even if they wanted to?

It was part of the deal that took the Premiership highlights back to the BBC. The Beeb got the home internationals, Sky the away games, with both channels getting the rights to show highlights the same day.

Governmentyard · Post by **Governmentyard** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 6:21 pm 0

Guru-Meditation wrote:And Monaco don't have a national team.

They do, they just play in the French league