World Cup thoughts...

[GarethKeenan]

I'm really looking forward to the World Cup, although I think that there is a weakness with the qualifying competition, how can Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, and Costa Rica qualify and, for example, Denmark and Greece not? Instead there should be global qualifying groups, and not regional qualifying. I realise that the major European clubs do not even want to release players to travel within Europe so would be seriously unhappy about letting their stars travel to Asia, South America or Oceania if needed, but it could mean that the best teams go to the World Cup and not just the regional powerhouse teams (like Paraguay and Iran). Of course it is more expensive and poorer federations cannot afford to charter planes etc etc but look at Finland's group for the next European C'Ships it is filled with ex-Soviet states and "Asian" countries anyway - like Kazakhstan. Not exactly an inexpensive journey, and at least a 7 hour flight away.

By the way I am picking a Togo v Iran final.