International Football - The Way Forward???

Now hear me out on this so I can explain my reasons .

Proposal One:
All international tournaments currently in existence to be abolished. World Cup, European Championships, African Cup of Nations etc etc. Scrap the whole lot. .

Proposal Two:
Replace them with a World League split into a series of divisions played over a four year cycle.
Promotion and relegation with four up and four down from each division.
Each league position in each division would have prize funds both for individual players and the National Football Association they represent. The prize fund allocated to each FA would be for the development of grass roots football and youth academies within each country.

Proposal Three: Restrict international friendlies to Charity matches only.

Reasons:
The main reason is an attempt to eradicate the flaws within the current tournament based system as it stands.
At present the biggest tournament i.e The World Cup along with some but not all others are played at a time when most competing players have had long, hard seasons playing in European leagues. To my mind we do not see enough of them playing to their top level in international tournaments at present. To spread a series of matches out evenly over a calendar year over a four year cycle allows players to be selected to play competitively for their country during times when they are in form, fit and not completely zonked .
The qualifying campaigns as they stand are somewhat farcical.
The groups are not competitive enough with some nations not having any realistic hope of qualifying unless qualification is made unduly easy. The gap between the ability levels is too big and neither team in some matches learns much from the experience.
One team sets out to achieve damage limitation while the other sets out to improve their goal difference .
With a World League the divisions would be such that the games would be competitive and would consist of teams of a similar ability and quality therefore meaning players would learn a hell of a lot more.
It has been the case for too long that the hosting of international tournanents have been subject to bidding processes. I hardly need to begin to explain the need to eliminate the need for those.
The corruption must stop and stop now.
Football is enough of a gravy train already and I am sick and tired of it. The World League divisional system with matches home and away eradicates the need for all bidding processes.
The World League proposal is to make all international matches competitive, meaningful and transparent.
Played over a four year cycle nations would go through partial transitional periods as players come and go for different reasons. Consistency over a four year time span would win the day. The fact that all international matches would be competitive would attempt to stop club managers withdrawing players from international duty on the basis of "Sorry I am withdrawing Johnny Dogsbollocks from international duty this week as he had a sore thumb" .

Now I'm sure this proposal has endless flaws and no doubt will get endless holes picked in it.
I suspect also that it will be accused of taking all the fun out of international football and that knockout is best.
On those counts I have to say I fundamentally disagree as a matter of principle.
I believe consistency over a long time span is the best measure
of genuine quality.
I know I know. Where's your sense of football romance and unpredictability snookered? .

Anyway that's my lot for now.
Snookered runs for cover .

I agree. I always thought it would be great for international rugby as well if they did that. I can't imagine anything more exciting than England playing Argentina in Buenos aires in a match that means something. The problem is of course is that we may never ever see England play Scotland in a competitive match again in our life time. I agree with your point about teams like San Marino and Liechtenstein trying to keep the score down to single figures against bigger teams. Qualifying matches for the tournaments are getting very dull. It's a joke that England need to play Prestigious friendlies in order to get feedback on where they trully are because qualifying is such a formality.

Bring back the home nations internationals at the end of May.
They were far better than some useless friendly matches.

^ Kill joys! ...

More seriously, I agree that international qualifying campaigns are now stultifyingly perfunctory. But I'm not sure we need to scrap tournaments do we? The award for hosting these things does not have to be intrisically tainted with corruption after all.

Snookered's proposal would perhaps work best as a replacement to qualifying campaigns. With winners of the lower divisions given a wildcard entry into the big events alongside promotion.

That way everyone that cares for 'em can still have their bi-annual lads' piss up abroad with a little footie on the side!

(Only Messrs Rooney may remain a loser... where would his goal scoring records be without the lkes of Estonia to trounce every six months, eh?! )

I stand with Charlemange on the home internationals, but rather than at the end of the season they should spread out more evenly and played throughout the season but they should be used to bring younger talent through to international level and each side can name only three experienced international players Or give players from lower divisions a taste of international duty.

Soonkered,
On Proposal One:
While I agree in principle on the idea of all existing international tournaments to be abolished. I would keep only the World Cup, European Championships and Olympics and I would allow two places
at the World Cup Finals be given to both the finalists at the previous Olympics. other than that if we were to scrap the world cup then maybe
the Confederations Cup competition should become the World Cup tournament played out between just the champions of each confederation.

Proposal Two
how many divisions are you suggesting should be created for this?

(30-05-2016 18:08 )babelover48 Wrote:  Proposal Two
how many divisions are you suggesting should be created for this?

Ten maybe Eleven.

(30-05-2016 19:00 )snookered147 Wrote:  

(30-05-2016 18:08 )babelover48 Wrote:  Proposal Two
how many divisions are you suggesting should be created for this?

Ten maybe Eleven.

How many in each division and how would you structure the Home and away system needed to ensure it works? Also how do you factor in winter breaks?

I understand there are 209 affiliated FIFA nations.
If not then I am happy to be corrected.

If the 209 figure is correct then 9 divisions of 21 and 1 division of 20. Once the nation content of each division is known the fixture list would be carefully constructed to fill out the four year cycle to suit all the relevant considerations.
In the divisions of 21 there would be 40 matches for each nation over the four years averaging 10 per year.
20 at home and 20 away. An average of 10 internationals per year. Seems fair enough me thinks.
In the division of 20 teams there would be 38 games with 19 home and 19 away.

This is on the assumption that the 209 figure is correct which no doubt I will be told it isn't .

No 211 with Gibraltar and Kosovo joining FIFA recently. Apparently Jersey want to join Fifa