World Cup should let in some losers

Alan Black
Updated 10:56 pm, Thursday, February 27, 2014

What of the nations that never get to go to the World Cup party? Left outside the ropes of FIFA's gala, this year's breeze being held on the beaches of Brazil. Soccer's top nations rollick in the surf, riding their golden brands and products. The forlorn and forgotten countries look on - if only we were worthy.

Many nations suck at football, others try hard and occasionally score a goal but it's never enough. Those left out can only chew on historical beefs and become jerky. When England plays Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica in Brazil this summer, the Scots (not at the World Cup) will give up haggis for spaghetti, wear the colors of a South American nation and scream Gooool! when Costa Rica scores.

Other unqualified countries will get rude. North Koreans will boo Rio-bound South Koreans, if they can tap a signal on the rabbit ears of their Stalinist TV sets. The Chinese will mock Japan hoping they sink quickly in the first round. In Europe, the stay-at-home Serbs will laugh out loud if Croatia is buried under a dune of Brazilian goals in the opening game. Expect more excluded Europeans to sneer and giggle when everyone's favorite German word, schadenfreude, is applied to the shock result of the tournament - U.S. 3, Germany 1.

Sour grapes make for bad taste. FIFA should squash the bitter and leave open a couple of spots for perennial losers. Imagine a World Cup with San Marino or Liechtenstein, European soccer's whipping boys. Or from the South Pacific, the sad song of American Samoa, known as the worst team in the world and the subject of a new movie, "Next Goal Wins," to be released in April. The Samoans took a 31-0 defeat in a World Cup qualifier in 2001.

Sure, the one-sided score lines would be ridiculous. We might see Brazil 22, Djibouti 0 but no critic could then say the World Cup was short on goals. And goal differential can be decisive in first round play. Imagine France must beat Luxembourg by 12 goals to advance yet the Luxembourgers hold out by losing 11-0, like brave defenders on the barricades of resistance. A whole new paradox of defeat could be written by soccer hacks: Luxembourg destroys French hope.

So, what of the underdog? Soccer's elites muzzled the small bark by planting their big money kennel over the sport years ago. The World Cup increasingly looks like the same bunch of countries playing for glory every four years. There's talk about expanding the number of qualifying teams but that's not what's needed here. Just let a couple of inept wags play to remind the planet that power should not be the only criteria on the invite to the party. Soccer is the game of the poor result. FIFA, be inclusive and let the unfortunates in on the fun.

http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/World-Cup-should-let-in-some-losers-5275112.php?

I bet Qatar would "randomly" get selected to play in just about every would cup :lol:

Edited by tbitm: 1/3/2014 01:22:31 AM

Qatar, the random nation.

Totally random, every 4 years...

When did Peter Fitzsimons start writing for a San Fransisco paper?

One of the worst articles written ever? How do people get paid to write like a six year old?

There already are several participiants from the football third world - Australia being one of them.

Good God :lol:.

Maybe each tournament should have a designated loser nation

This World Cups deignated loser is......North Korea!

Ukraine (not that they suck), in with a group consisting of Russia.

Everyone who has read that article has become stupider because of it

:lol: OK, a simple wrong would have done just fine :lol:

Or Palenstine with a group of israel, iran , egypt

It was a badly written, pointless article.

That said;

Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea and Papua New Guinea in a group appeals to me. :)

Eurovision has already tried this.

I guess diluting the talent on display has worked for the media world so they're trying to share this knowledge with football...

There could be some merit in running an exhibition tournament for those countries that will never get there or are developing ie. India, Fiji, Indonesia & Kenya

There already is one, it's called "qualifiers".

Isn't the CONCACAF Gold Cup a World Cup for losers?

I thought they reserved the "Everyones a winner" psychological bull shit for the schooling systems????

Im sure the confidence boost that Fiji got from a free pass to the finals of the WC would all but vanish after being slaughtered 13-0 in 3 group games.

Also side note. As football becomes bigger and BIGGER in the USA and Aus, expect to find gems like this on an increasingly high level. "I dont follow it but I want to seem relevant so heres my article."

India has qualified before, although they didn't attend (1950).
Indonesia has competed before, as Dutch East Indies (1938). Unfortunately for them, the 1938 world cup was a straight knock-out tournament, so they only played (and lost) one match; 6-0 to eventual finalists Hungary.

If North America = the world, then yes.

The trophy for all of us...

In other news FIFA have announced that after determining the current trophy to be too phallic, from 2018 onwards the following trophy will be awarded:

They let us in 8-[

Having randomly selected 'loser' nations included reduces the meaning of qualification. I'm 100% against that.

With regard to expanding the 'joy' of competing at the World Cup to more nations I've suggested this idea in the past...

Rather than have play-offs on a continental, home and away basis - why not take all the play-off sides from around the world to a central location and play a 10 day long qualification tournament. That way the players, the supporters, and the host cities, get to be a part of the world cup without detracting from the world cup itself.