Rileybobs wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 14, 2025 8:29 pm

Kane is just an unbelievable player. Comedy that some people think he should be in the side.

dermotdermot wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 14, 2025 9:38 pm

I noticed that Josh Cullen isn’t in the Rep. of Ireland squad. Did he not get picked this time?

Funkydrummer wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 14, 2025 9:40 pm

Where's the satisfaction in that game ? Only watched half an hour and called it a day.

Disruption to the domestic football season for that nonsense.

That's what it must be like for Citeh fans for over half the season's fixtures.

Funkydrummer wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 14, 2025 9:40 pm

Where's the satisfaction in that game ? Only watched half an hour and called it a day.

Disruption to the domestic football season for that nonsense.

That's what it must be like for Citeh fans for over half the season's fixtures.

ChorltonCharlie wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 15, 2025 8:17 am

I think qualifiers have an unfair reputation. We should try and see it more like we see the FA Cup where most fans like the idea of a smaller club bloodying the nose of a bigger club. Maybe it does need a fresh outlook though. They could do yearly pyramid series of leagues to replace the qualifiers and nations league. Doing this would have a prestigious top tier, but with 3 levels of league and yearly promotion/relegation, every country could start a 2 year cycle with the possibility of qualifying. The swiss model may also have some merit, but with so many nations and a vast difference in quality, you’ll still see the top nations playing minnows 4 times in any cycle. The one positive is you may actually play 1 game against top quality opposition, but even losing this wouldn’t introduce much jeopardy if you do your job in the other games, which most top nations do.

That said, look around the qualifying groups, and the biggest nations aren’t having it all their own way. Slovakia have beaten Germany, though thrown away that advantage by losing to Northern Ireland. Sweden only 1 point from 12 in a group that looks far from daunting. Netherlands will likely miss out on auto qualification if they lose in Poland. Italy will need to beat Norway by 4 clear goals to avoid the play offs.

Ric_C wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 15, 2025 12:02 am

Governing bodies have ruined the qualifiers. Maybe it's because England are a lot better now, but there is no jeopardy at all anymore, it's like a training session most times.

Rileybobs wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 15, 2025 9:10 am

World Cup qualifiers are boring for teams like England, because they’re comfortably in the best 32 - or now 48 - teams in the world, so therefore should and usually do qualify easily. I’m guessing they’re not as boring for the smaller nations who have something to play for.

Unless you want a system whereby the best teams are intentionally disadvantaged - which would lead to a weaker World Cup - then I don’t know what the answer is.

Spijed wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 15, 2025 8:42 am

I can't understand why some nations are still very poor, such as San Marino, for example.

As it's landlocked by Italy there must be enough Italian footballers at Championship/league one level who won't get into their national side, but would qualify to play for San Marino, who might fancy playing a bit of international football

Ric_C wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 15, 2025 12:02 am

Governing bodies have ruined the qualifiers. Maybe it's because England are a lot better now, but there is no jeopardy at all anymore, it's like a training session most times.

martin_p wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 15, 2025 9:54 am

The answer is not having a 48 team World Cup finals.

RicardoMontalban wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 15, 2025 10:16 am

There’s no jeopardy because FIFA have recognised that, from a financial point of view, all of their biggest markets need to be involved in the tournament. It’s seen as a disaster if an England/Netherlands/Italy stink out a qualifying campaign and miss out. Regardless of FIFA’s self appointed civilising mission through football (hmm), a major (and probably decisive) factor in expanding the competition is risk minimisation and profit maximisation.

But what we end up with is qualification campaigns like this. Look through all the European groups, there’s only really Italy that look to be making hard work of it, and they’ve won all but one.

Socrates wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 15, 2025 10:27 am

If Italy don’t qualify this time it will be the third World Cup on the spin they’ve failed to qualify.

Until beating Northern Ireland on Monday Germany were struggling too.

martin_p wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 15, 2025 9:54 am

The answer is not having a 48 team World Cup finals.

Pickles wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 15, 2025 3:25 pm

I'm all for a forty-eight nation World Cup with a good spread of countries from all over. Possibly more. It's a world cup.