FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022

[Armagh18]

Also any system that has that bang average Belgian team at or near the top for a good few years now has to be questioned.

[Milltown Row2]

Its why FIFA have it so wrong, they should in all fairness pop into the GAABOARD and get the low down on things from Joe Soap and rearrange the way they rank teams!!

Are we looking an open qualification system worldwide? Would be great, travel wise though a nightmare but sure if it sorts out the rankings

[smort]

Some bad games the last couple of days

This Portugal Ghana game following suit

[seafoid]

Still early days but Belgium won't stop many good teams with that defence.  Apparently De Bruyne got man of the match?  I thought he was brutal.

Spain were sensational but they were playing The Dog & Duck.

Will be interesting to see what Brazil have.

He more or less came out and said he shouldn't have got it. France defence looked ropey against the Aussies at times as well. Looking forward to seeing Spain against a half decent team.

These are the best teams in the world, Costa Rica are 31st, so to use The Republic as a team ranked 49th for example, would Spain have knocked in 10 past the Irish team? Iran were 20th btw

Rankings are flawed. Teams are rarely playing other teams from outside their own confederation. How can we accurately rank Iran when they've been mostly playing Lebanon, Syria, Bahrain, Cambodia? Not Iran's fault of course. But they would have little chance of qualifying from UEFA.

It's a bit like the Ulster Football Championship

[Armagh18]

Its why FIFA have it so wrong, they should in all fairness pop into the GAABOARD and get the low down on things from Joe Soap and rearrange the way they rank teams!!

Are we looking an open qualification system worldwide? Would be great, travel wise though a nightmare but sure if it sorts out the rankings

It's due to covid restricting the amount teams were playing teams from outside their own confederation- Iran would be fairly strong in theirs hence their inflated ranking but would be no be nowhere near the level of a decent European team. Of course you already knew that and decided to be a smart arse anyway lol.

Seen an FA cup style knockout tournament with every country involved mentioned somewhere, would never happen though but would be interesting!

[shark]

Its why FIFA have it so wrong, they should in all fairness pop into the GAABOARD and get the low down on things from Joe Soap and rearrange the way they rank teams!!

Are we looking an open qualification system worldwide? Would be great, travel wise though a nightmare but sure if it sorts out the rankings

It's due to covid restricting the amount teams were playing teams from outside their own confederation- Iran would be fairly strong in theirs hence their inflated ranking but would be no be nowhere near the level of a decent European team. Of course you already knew that and decided to be a smart arse anyway lol.

Seen an FA cup style knockout tournament with every country involved mentioned somewhere, would never happen though but would be interesting!

Not just Covid. Also Nations League , which means UEFA nations no longer playing many friendlies.

[seafoid]

32 teams is another problem. There were 24 in 1982
It's the Super 8s thing. There weren't 8 Super teams and there aren't 32 decent teams to play the World Cup wither

[shark]

32 teams is another problem. There were 24 in 1982
It's the Super 8s thing. There weren't 8 Super teams and there aren't 32 decent teams to play the World Cup wither

48 next time. Just 16 (I think) from UEFA though.

[Armagh18]

32 teams is another problem. There were 24 in 1982
It's the Super 8s thing. There weren't 8 Super teams and there aren't 32 decent teams to play the World Cup wither

48 next time. Just 16 (I think) from UEFA though.

How many from UEFA this time?

[Eire90]

good for those betting on unders

[shark]

32 teams is another problem. There were 24 in 1982
It's the Super 8s thing. There weren't 8 Super teams and there aren't 32 decent teams to play the World Cup wither

48 next time. Just 16 (I think) from UEFA though.

How many from UEFA this time?

13.
So reducing as overall percentage

[weareros]

Good to see Chris Hughton there. Ghana are solid.

[laoislad]

Some dive from Ronaldo there

[weareros]

Soft peno alright.

[Capt Pat]

I can see why they gave it but not a penalty for me. Ronaldo won it with the dive.