The Fan

A two-tier qualification?

The Editor — Tue, September 5th 2006

European minnows should face pre-qualification

With the new expanded European qualifiers starting at the weekend, it has become obvious that there are too many poor quality nations competing.

There are increasing calls for some of the weaker nations to face a pre-qualification stage where the winners then go on to compete with the big boys for European and World Cup Finals places.

Why not take this a step further? Let’s guarantee the big nations automatically qualify for the major tournaments. While its funny when a quality team like Holland fails to qualify, there’s no doubt it eventually reduces the spectacle of the main showpiece occasions.

So which European teams should qualify automatically? Italy, France, Germany, and England have all won tournaments so would be obvious choices. Holland have reached 2 finals and Spain would be missed. Out of 14 World Cup places that would leave 8 to play for - sounds fair…

Listed in: Competitions, Euro Championship, Countries, England

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