International Football - The Way Forward???

Ok so with 211 it would be 9 divisions of 21 and 1 of 22 .
Thank you for the updated figure .

The only proposal I'd agree with is scrapping meaningless friendlies. International football should mean something.

But to scrap World Cups and each continental championships is a definite no. I like the World Cup, I like the European Championships and I like the qualification process for them.

Would it not be a logistical nightmare for teams to travel to other countries to compete in a world league? Would this be happening during a season of club football when players are still involved in domestic and european or other continental football? If not when would it happen? During the summer? I can't see the sense.

Fans aren't going to pay anywhere near what it would cost to attend the matches, not to mention costs of flights, accomodation, food etc. And if people aren't there, what's the point?

Another problem would arise when other nations emerge and also express desire to join the world league. I mean where does it stop, you'd be creating division after division until it's a crazy number.

I think people would get burned out with international football if it was this frequent. The World Cup and European Championships come around each four years, that for me is more than sufficient time span between the tournaments. The qualification for these tournaments are important international matches. Boring friendlies are not.

Sorry, but I've kind of blown several holes in your proposals. I like the format as it is. I would say that corruption is a blight and Qatar 2022 for me was completely corrupt. I still hope they move it from there but I'm not sure they will, sadly.

^ I take your observations on board.
Sorry but I don't accept several holes have been blown in my proposals.
Bear in mind I am suggesting 9 divisions of 21 and 1 of 22 which would spread 40 and 38 matches over 4 years. An average of ten internationals per year.
Five home matches and five away matches per year for each nation is not unreasonable imo when spread over the calendar year.
And ten internationals total in a year is not unreasonable either as England and a lot of other nations play this amount of matches each year anyway.
The only difference being the travel distance may be a bit longer on occasion for a few of the away matches.
And remember because I am suggesting a 4 year cycle the long distance matches could spread as wide as possible over the four year cycle.
I would have thought some fans would love to go to different locations around the world to watch England as they frequently have down the years.
The reality is that international football is disruptive to club football now and this would not change much if at all in terms of the number of international matches.
And I think the expansion in number of countries argument is a little overplayed in all honesty. I can't imagine loads and loads of nations cropping up to create an extra 3 or even 4 divisions in the short to medium term. Yes some extra countries might require admission at the end of each four year cycle but that could be managed easily enough imo.

As for burn out I say this.
I don't believe fan burn out would be an issue. The average number of international games per year would not change much if at all. The only difference is that all games would be genuinely competitive in every sense which is surely better for the spectator.
By the time players get to tournaments there is an argument to suggest they are already burnt out due to club committments of playing so many matches for their clubs.
Burnt out players at tournaments often do not perform at their best in tournaments.
As I said in my initial post the league system with matches spread out over each calendar year allows players to be picked on form at each required time.
At the moment players can miss entire tournaments due to unluckily timed injuries. Over a four year cycle they can play some meaningful part in a league campaign.

Regarding fan costs. Tournament football tickets are expensive especially for the latter stages.
Accomodation prices are always jacked up in the locations nearby stadia in tournaments as well.
And airlines are not exactly shy in jacking up the flight costs when knowing fans want to travel to tournaments.

And the bidding processes are a farce and have been for years.
I don't trust them and don't believe in them.

International football should indeed mean something.
In my view this means the matches should be genuinely competitive in every sense.
Too many qualifiers are one sided. Too many qualifying matches are pretty much a waste of time and energy and travel as well as travel costs.
With a league divisional system the teams would be of a similar standard and therefore both more competitive and relevant to the modern game imo.

In my initial post I laid out the weaknesses in the present system and to my mind they are legitimate.
I am not saying my idea is perfect by any means and would consider all manner of modifications.
By the same token however the present system is unacceptable imo for all the reasons I initially laid out.
I don't like the qualifying system or the present tournament system as it stands.
I would prefer consistency over a sustained time span to win the day but that is merely my opinion.

Its a no from me im afraid as I would miss extra time and pens, plus England would probably be the Stoke of this World league and finish in midtable

Good old penalty shoot outs .
Except when England are in them .

The thought of Jersey applying would make international friendlies more meaningless...

I agree corruption is a blight but I do feel too that they will not move Qater 2022. I cannot see FIFA reforming very much and making the bidding process corrupt free as there will always be individuals within that organisation who find some way to do underhand deals in secret. I do not see Infantino lasting much more than two years because I don't think he is robust enough to sweep the corruption totally out of FIFA.
If one of Infantino's first moves had been to look into the processes of Qatar 2022 and he decided to re run the vote again, I bet we would have got different outcome.

(30-05-2016 13:55 )snookered147 Wrote:  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.

I'm sorry, but this is nonsensical. Where would these prize funds come from? Sponsors wouldn't be interested in anything other than a top division and even for that they are unlikely to part with the vast sums they pay to sponsor the current World Cup. The value of TV rights would be drastically reduced too, making the whole thing financially unviable. Very few countries would be interested in entering such a competition anyway, as Equatorial Guinea are hardly likely to fancy a long trip to Mongolia for a midtable Division 8 fixture.

(30-05-2016 13:55 )snookered147 Wrote:  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.

This claim isn't accurate, as it only describes UEFA'a qualification process. It doesn't reflect how World Cup qualifying works in other confederations. Plus if UEFA's system doesn't meet your requirements, it could easily be changed without the overly drastic step of having to form a world league. For example, smaller countries having to play through a preliminary round would fix the issue you describe above. Simple problems are best addressed with simple solutions.

(30-05-2016 13:55 )snookered147 Wrote:  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" .

This is the most ridiculous part of the whole idea. Matches would be meaningful? All international matches would be competitive? Would they hell. Most matches under your system would be meaningless midtable fixtures, not to mention that Germany might win the title with 2 games to spare, and Indonesia relegated from division 8 with TWO YEARS to spare. In reality you'd create a gigantic number of fixtures and very very few of them would have any real meaning at all. It would be a lengthy procession of some of the most pointless football matches ever played.

(30-05-2016 19:39 )snookered147 Wrote:  Ok so with 211 it would be 9 divisions of 21 and 1 of 22 .
Thank you for the updated figure .

What about the 12 countries who are members of a FIFA affiliated continental confederation and play in confederation tournaments, but are not members of FIFA itself? Zanzibar for example.

Much food for thought there Mr Bonney and I see much merit in what you say particularly regarding sponsorship issues.
Will respond more fully later.

OK no problem.

For the record, I agree with you on one thing - that Regenerated didn't blow several holes in your proposals.

I won't go through his points, as you answered them yourself, but I thought it worth adding that FIFA have only had 3 new members in the last 9 years, so it's hardly a tidal wave of emerging nations.