Asia 4.5 WC spots a joke?

[amacpher]

China just completed a very impressive North American tour that saw them go winless!! They lost to Haiti, Costa Rica and the Metrostars. Nice treble! Some guy named "Nugent", who's not good enough to play in MLS, scored the winning goal for the Metrostars!
[?]Does anybody have a good answer as to why Asia sends more teams to the WC than Concacaf and same number as South America?? What's mind-boggling is that not only was China the best team in Asian WC 2002 qualifying, but they [u]dominated</u>. They went undefeated until their very last game (which meant nothing to them)! Until the top qualifier in South America or Concacaf lose to a B-side average MLS team, I think that 4.5 number is about 4.25 too many! Or is this just me?!

[Metro]

LOL, you're not first person on these boards (including the old one) complain about the Asian spots. There are a few who agree with you, including me. I bet that Asia's high number of WC spots has something to do with the AFC's voting power in FIFA. Asia has quite a lot of member nations and each nation has 1 vote. If, say an incumbent FIFA president wants to get re-elected and needs votes, kissing up to Asia is not a bad idea.

quote:Originally posted by amacpher

China just completed a very impressive North American tour that saw them go winless!! They lost to Haiti, Costa Rica and the Metrostars. Nice treble! Some guy named "Nugent", who's not good enough to play in MLS, scored the winning goal for the Metrostars!
[?]Does anybody have a good answer as to why Asia sends more teams to the WC than Concacaf and same number as South America?? What's mind-boggling is that not only was China the best team in Asian WC 2002 qualifying, but they [u]dominated</u>. They went undefeated until their very last game (which meant nothing to them)! Until the top qualifier in South America or Concacaf lose to a B-side average MLS team, I think that 4.5 number is about 4.25 too many! Or is this just me?!

[Ed]

quote:Originally posted by amacpher

China just completed a very impressive North American tour that saw them go winless!! They lost to Haiti, Costa Rica and the Metrostars. Nice treble! Some guy named "Nugent", who's not good enough to play in MLS, scored the winning goal for the Metrostars!
[?]Does anybody have a good answer as to why Asia sends more teams to the WC than Concacaf and same number as South America?? What's mind-boggling is that not only was China the best team in Asian WC 2002 qualifying, but they [u]dominated</u>. They went undefeated until their very last game (which meant nothing to them)! Until the top qualifier in South America or Concacaf lose to a B-side average MLS team, I think that 4.5 number is about 4.25 too many! Or is this just me?!

China had a very crap group in their qualifying run which explains their going undefeated. I don't think you'd have the same condescending remarks about South Korea or Japan. Iran had some good sides until recently.
I do not think that AFC deserves 4.5 spots but they are not completely useless.

[amacpher]

quote:Originally posted by Metro

I bet that Asia's high number of WC spots has something to do with the AFC's voting power in FIFA. Asia has quite a lot of member nations and each nation has 1 vote. If, say an incumbent FIFA president wants to get re-elected and needs votes, kissing up to Asia is not a bad idea.

That's sad if its true. Sounds like there needs to be some weighting done on these votes. The vote of Italy shouldn't count as much as some country that thinks a soccer ball is something you should slice in 2 and eat noodle-soup out of... or whatever...

[DJT]

quote:Originally posted by amacpher

The vote of Italy shouldn't count as much as some country that thinks a soccer ball is something you should slice in 2 and eat noodle-soup out of... or whatever...

Well, soccer is bigger in Asian countries than in Canada or the US.

[amacpher]

quote:Originally posted by Ed
China had a very crap group in their qualifying run which explains their going undefeated. I don't think you'd have the same condescending remarks about South Korea or Japan. Iran had some good sides until recently.
I do not think that AFC deserves 4.5 spots but they are not completely useless.

What I saw from the World Cup indicated that China must have been in the Group of Death compared to the one that Saudi Arabia somehow won! ... As for Japan, I'm still waiting for their rise towards a soccer power-nation that many people seem to think not only will happen, but already has happened. It's puzzling! Japan has never done anything in a World Cup! ... PS .. They just lost 1-0 at home to Senegal today! Sounds like they are China's form. Maybe they should invite the Metrostars to Niigata!

[amacpher]

quote:Originally posted by DJT

Well, soccer is bigger in Asian countries than in Canada or the US.

Well, even if that's true throughout Asia (which it isn't), between Canada and the US we have 0 guarantee entries to the WC instead of 4!

[DJT]

quote:Originally posted by amacpher

quote:Originally posted by DJT

Well, soccer is bigger in Asian countries than in Canada or the US.

Well, even if that's true throughout Asia (which it isn't), between Canada and the US we have 0 guarantee entries to the WC instead of 4!

That's not what my comment was directed at. It was directed at your comment about Asians not knowing what to do with a soccer ball.

The reason that Asia has 4.5 spots is definitely political. They were supposed to have 4 (including Japan and South Korea) in 2002 but wanted 5, and after they made a big fuss about it UEFA volunteered to give up half a spot (which they ended up winning back when Ireland beat Iran) in exchange for Asian votes when it came time to bid for 2006 --- pure politics. Then since South Korea made it to the semifinals in 2002 they had a nice excuse for why they should still have 4.5 spots despite Saudi Arabia's and China's performance (actually I think they wanted a full 5, but that was pushing it). I may have over-simplified things here but generally these events were well-documented.

If I may now throw in my own opinion, I think another reason for so many spots in Asia (in particular, why they have as many as 4 in the first place) is that FIFA wants the sport to continue to grow in Asia (lots of people and lots of money), so they want to make sure that countries like Japan, China and South Korea always get in.

Finally, regarding how China and Saudi Arabia qualified, Saudi Arabia's group was indeed deemed to be more difficult than China's as Ed suggested because it included Iran. Apart from that the two groups were roughly equal. Remember that with Japan and South Korea already qualified, Asian qualifying was generally weaker than it normally would be.

[Mimglow]

[quote]quote:Originally posted by amacpher

It's puzzling! Japan has never done anything in a World Cup! ... PS .. They just lost 1-0 at home to Senegal today! Sounds like they are China's form.

I guess you didn't watch the World Cup last year, where Japan made it to the round of 16 and lost to the eventual 3rd place team (Turkey), and where Senegal made it to the quarters (where they too lost to Turkey).

South Korea made it to the 3rd place match, where it too lost to Turkey (I detect a pattern )

4.5 spots is a lot, but it is erroneous to claim that Asian countries have done "nothing" at the World Cup.

[Mimglow]

[quote]quote:Originally posted by amacpher

It's puzzling! Japan has never done anything in a World Cup! ... PS .. They just lost 1-0 at home to Senegal today! Sounds like they are China's form.

I guess you didn't watch the World Cup last year, where Japan made it to the round of 16 and lost to the eventual 3rd place team (Turkey), and where Senegal made it to the quarters (where they too lost to Turkey).

South Korea made it to the 3rd place match, where it too lost to Turkey (I detect a pattern )

4.5 spots is a lot, but it is erroneous to claim that Asian countries have done "nothing" at the World Cup.