[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

I'd go even further, I think an out and out merger would benefit both regions. As you say, CONCACAF is just too uncompetitive, with Mexico and the USA pretty much guaranteed to qualify, even in second gear. It'd also stop the traditional farce of CONCACAF's third placed side automatically qualifying for the WC and getting trounced in every game. The media may like Trinidad, or Jamaica but do they really deserve to be in a WC when far better countries from more competitive divisions are left behind? Meanwhile CONMEBOL has too few countries so the same teams keep playing each other over and over again.

They also need to reduce the teams that qualify from Asia. It's absurd that they get the just one less place than South America. (Uzbekistan more likely to qualify than Peru?)

It'll never happen so long as Blatter's in charge, though, seeing as he seems to think the WC is all about no-hoper sides like Jamaica participating rather than the best ones.

i don't know a lot about blatter or uzbekistan football, and peru has a nice team that's not going to win any world cups but could put on a decent show on a good day. agreed on the low south american representation-- that is because it's a "continent" with few countries, so proportionally it could be seen as a high count already-- the only team that truly sucks there is bolivia; even venezuela has made huge progress in the last couple of decades-- all the "bolivariano" countries who traditionally were outcasts really began to rise in the 80s (and venezuela is the last one to do so). so the number of good teams has increased.

anyway, for selfish reasons (i.e., i want a good show) i say it would also be good for usa football to start setting its sights higher, obviously--and playing with its continental peers (or "aspiring peers" as it's called) is the obvious next step. going from concacaf to the world cup it's too much of a leap, like jumping from elementary school to college. you can't train against canada and then go face italy (unless you're talking ice hockey). but if you've been regularly facing argentina (as tiny uruguay does, it's the most played iinternational rivalry in history) then you're ready for anything.