UEFA: get with the times!!

Bob actually planted the seed for this post… I mused recently on a different type of qualification set-up, but Bob made me think about the way they do it in other sports, like tennis and I believe vollyball…

See, the differences between the “big” nations and the “small” nations are such, that countries like Malta, Luxembourg, Wales, Albania haven’t got a hope in hell to ever qualify. So what do they do, they try to stop the big nations from butchering them. Hence, you get dreadful matches in which the small nations use every weapon allowed to stop the big boys from partying. With all risk involved. I wouldn’t want to have to call Messrs Schuster, Stevens, Wenger and Benitez that their expensive players are out for 2 months because an Albanian/Maltese/Welsh/Far Oerer(?)/Luxembourger kicked his knee-caps in two… You know what I mean?

So, everyone loses: fans (dreadful games), small nations (no chance for any honour), big nations (irritation, suspensions, injuries), clubs (injuries) and in the long run sponsors and federations/associations since most fans will turn away from these atrocious games.

My idea?

Make two leagues! Take the UEFA standings and make a A-League (the top 32 nations or the best four of the current qualification groups) and make a B-League with “the rest”. There’s a competition (could maybe be a tournament but I’m not sure logistically) and the worst four of Group A (say, Finland, Scotland, Servia and Israel for the sake of argument) get relegated to the B-League and the top 4 of the B-League (say Albania, Wales, Iceland and Kazachstan) make into the A-league.

The best 16 of the A-League play the EC tournament for the title two years later.

You get my drift?

While countries like Iceland, Albania etc etc are in the B-League they can focus on their skills, playing opponents with a comparable quality. They can build up, instead of tear down… Look how Finland and Ireland and Poland are doing… Look how Denmark emerged on the scene 20 years ago. Or Holland 40 years ago…

In the meantime, the big nations can slug it out in their “qualification” competition and we’ll see more games like Oranje - France, Germany- Italy, England- Russia instead of Germany - Far Oer, Holland - Albania and France - Kazachstan…

Well?

It works in other sports… It’ll make it safer for our players, it’ll be more fun for the fans, it’s more fair towards the smaller nations, etc etc.

Is there a Nobel-price for Football?