Gibraltar close to Uefa inclusion

eirebhoy

"European soccer's chiefs said they had "no choice" but to allow Gibraltar provisional membership after a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/6215286.stm

This is seriously going too far. A lot of the minnows from a decade ago are no longer minnows but then along come the replacements.

I don't know how people don't agree with a 2 stage qualifying system like Africa, N.America and Asia.

county

i dont see the problem tbh

MrJoeSoap

Roughly the same population as San Marino, but probably far less organised. Another whipping boys unless UEFA decides to incorporate qualifiers.

eirebhoy

county wrote:

i dont see the problem tbh

Every top team gets a walkover. Waste of time and there's too many teams as it is. Imagine the Accrington Stanley and a few teams of similar standard joining the premiership and it being expanded to 24 teams. Do you think any premiership team would be happy?

smackbunnybaby

letting gibralter in is signs that FIFA could no longer hold out, i dont think they really wanted to let gibralter in.
unfortunately for FIFA they may be unable to turn a blind eye towards other countries like Tibet and Greenland who at this moment are not recognised as eligable but want in.
expect more countries (or soverigns/principalities etc) to try their luck now.
One good aspect to come out of this is that adding more whipping boys to the mix means that the amount of teams per group will be massive (in europe).This means FIFA will have to seriously consider some type of qualifying for the qualifiers.
maybe something along the lines of all the minniws having to play off for the right to play in the actual qualifiers...........just a thought....;)

Benedict XVI

All this has been discussed over the past 2 months with regard to San Marino.
I am all for the like of Gib. being admitted to UEFa with the clause that there has to be a pre-qualifing touranment.
The current setup cannot continue. I offer nothing to the minnow or bigger teams, and don't give me that 'It gives the minnow a chance to play against the best in the world s**t'.
If Italy were playing at home against Gibralter they should play it in a Seire D stadium with their B team, and they would still win 10-0.
As eirbhoy has said a few times, how come all other Fifa Region has pre-qualifing and Uefa, tha largest don't, pure crazy.

MrJoeSoap

I think they could actually do well against bigger sides, I bet their defence is "rock" solid.

Oh, is that my coat?

Benedict XVI

MrJoeSoap wrote:

I think they could actually do well against bigger sides, I bet their defence is "rock" solid.

Oh, is that my coat?

while we are here,

Name the Gibralter born player who scored a hat-trick in a FA Cup 3rd round game.

MrJoeSoap

Wouldn't have a breeze, but by "Gibraltar born" I assume he played for a different country?

Benedict XVI

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Wouldn't have a breeze, but by "Gibraltar born" I assume he played for a different country?

No - he was a Gibralterian (if there is such a thing) and he played cricket for Gibralter also.
It was big news at the time and the fact that he was from Gribalter was mentioed in most reprts on the game

patmac

I think it might be a money thing, as Gibraltar have been accepted they are entitled to FIFA funding for developement of soccer. The Aran Islands should put in an application.

Benedict XVI

patmac wrote:

I think it might be a money thing, as Gibraltar have been accepted they are entitled to FIFA funding for developement of soccer. The Aran Islands should put in an application.

Maybe not the Aran islands but I have heard that the channell islands are looking for inclusion, Isle of Man would also quialify.

smackbunnybaby

for a good laugh you should google "Sark" and the "island games"

Guy:Incognito

Why even bring up the subject of a two tier system to reduce the amount of games when we are still playing absolutel ypointless frinedlies?

eirebhoy

Stekelly wrote:

Why even bring up the subject of a two tier system to reduce the amount of games when we are still playing absolutel ypointless frinedlies?

I do wonder about people that think friendlies are pointless.

Brian Kerr took over as Ireland manager and instead of experimenting immediately he decided to stick with McCarthy's team. Breen and Cunningham were the defensive partnership, Duff continued to play as a striker, Kilbane played on the left wing, Holland and Kinsella formed the centre of midfield and Finnan or Healy for the right.
When the friendlies came around the team changed. O'Brien and Cunningham formed an excellent partnership. Kilbane and Kavanagh were the central midfield (Kilbane winning poty in that position). Duff was playing regularly in his proper position with A.Reid on the other wing. Morrison also became a regular.
That all happpened in friendlies between the Swiss away match and Cyprus at home. Kerr wasn't one for experimenting in competitives and most top managers wouldn't be giving debuts out in competitive matches.

Guy:Incognito

If Gibraltar and the others in their tier are as bad as everyone say they are, we can afford to use those bankers to experiment a bit.

Plus, the manager can watch these players week in week out playing for their clubs. a pointless friendly game once or twice a year where the team is swapped around and 7 or 8 subs used isnt going to help and it's not going to make them gell as a team.

KdjaCL

eirebhoy wrote:

.

I don't know how people don't agree with a 2 stage qualifying system like Africa, N.America and Asia.

Better than freindlies tbh.

kdjac

DaveH

i have just thought of this as the point was made in an earlier post "what if the premiership was 24 teams" The league wouldnt be degraded no doubt, but the accountants and the chairman would be happy...why 5 more home games!!!

Man U\Liverpool\Arsenal\chelsea would have another 5 full houses. Remember when the premiership was formed in 1992 the plan was to have 18 teams in it. In 1995\96(think) the league went from 22 to 20 teams...but it has never gone to 18. I was at an Everton match that season and someone said to me, "the chairman isnt happy about about this 18 teams, think about it...loosing 2 home games...say £10 x 40,000 = £400,000 x 2 = £800,000".
So they loose nearly £1m(1995 money) in gate receipts.

the ireland v San Marino game was always gonna be a walk over, but Lawnsdowne was still full. Maybe its the FA's who want such a big amount of countries in europe?? Was the England v Liechenstien(i think!!) game a sell out?

Cerdito

Benedict XVI wrote:

while we are here,

Name the Gibralter born player who scored a hat-trick in a FA Cup 3rd round game.

Tim Buzaglo

DerekD Goldfish

I am 100% against a pre-qualifing tournoment
there are only a handful of realy crap teams and even these can on the odd occasion deicde the outcome of the qualification process.
even if you eliminate the really crap teams (San Marino,Luxembourg,Faroe Islands,Andorra,Liechtenstein,Kazakhstan,Malta,) thats only maybe one team less in each group if you try to remove any more you start getting team who are half decent an particularly at home can have an effect on the final qualification results (Iceland,Georgia,Moldova,Cyprus,Wales,Lithuania,Austria) are people sujesting we get rid of these teams as well?

there are 3 possible solultions
Solution 1
take the worst 8 teams out have a pre qualification tournoment to allow 1 into the normal qualification process.
Pros:
One less "Walk over" for other teams
Cons:
When would this take place?
in would have to be beofore the other qualification process to allow them compete how would teams get the time to play enough internationals in such a short space of time?
a mini crap team european cup?
and if it were to go that way tease teams would have 1 month of competitive internationals every 2 years.

Solution 2
Take the next bank of 8 teams out
Pros:
Further reduce the number of games in the "conjested" international climate.
Cons:
take out a number of teams that often have a signifigant impact on qualification and have qualified themselves at times.
so then you have a 16 team qualification process far to many to have pre qualifing so it would have to run concurently , winners would have to play a runner up from one of the groups for qualification.
also mid ranking team rankings change a lot how would it be decided which team had to go through pre-qualification.
These teams would loose out on a lot on money from internationals that they rely on for improving the game in thier contry if a team gets stuck in this pre-qualification process for any lenth of time it would destory the game in that country is that really best for football?

Solution 3
Keep things as they are
Pros: Doesnt destory the game in low and mid ranked countrys
Cons: Bigger team get two or four "easy" matches in qualification

I know which solution I agree most with.

John_C

DaveH wrote:

the ireland v San Marino game was always gonna be a walk over, but Lawnsdowne was still full.

Lansdown was nowhere near full. The north terrace was half empty and there were patches of empty seats all around the ground.

Benedict XVI

Cerdito wrote:

Tim Buzaglo

Spot on, for non league Woking in a 4-2 win over West Brom in 1991.