CONCACAF doesn't deserve three and a half World Cup spots
By Noah Davis (goal.com)
During his tour of Africa, FIFA president Sepp Blatter hinted at changing the qualification system for the World Cup to provide more opportunity for teams from the continent to make an impact on football's biggest stage.
"We will have to change the numbers, but we'll do it step-by-step," Blatter told Goal.com. "One day we will open the World Cup more."
The president is hinting at a revamping of the regional breakdowns. Currently 13 teams from Europe (UEFA), five from Africa (CAF), four from South America (CONMEBOL), four from Asia (AFC), three from CONCACAF automatically qualify for the final round of the World Cup, while two additional teams from CONMEBOL, AFC, CONCACAF or Oceania get in as well depending on home-and-home play-in games. As the host country in 2010, South Africa will also qualify, giving the continent six teams in the finals.
Because of the intense politics of international soccer, any large change to the schema would take a tremendous amount of time and isn't likely to happen in the near future. (Europe would fight tooth and nail against any change that was likely to decrease the number of teams that qualified from the region.) But I'd like to offer the first step: giving CONCACAF's half place to AFC, starting with the 2014 World Cup qualifying.
Simply put, there's no reason why the the North and Central American region deserves the chance to get four teams into the World Cup final. Beyond Mexico and the United States, the quality of play is simply lacking. More importantly, as a whole, CONCACAF isn't getting better nearly as fast as the teams in CAF are. Sure, the United States is (too slowly) improving and Mexico will always remain a threat in international play, despite its propensity to underachieve, but beyond that, it's hard to see any other team advancing beyond the first round.
In the past three World Cups, no team from CONCACAF other then Mexico and the United States have gotten into the second round. Jamaica and Costa Rica came in third in 1998 and 2002, respectively, while in 2006, Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago came in last in their groups (as did the U.S.). To compared to the rest of the world, the region is getting worse and after watching the qualification stages for the 2010 Cup, it's clearer and clearer that this trend will continue.
Africa, on the other hand, is increasingly producing more quality teams. As a whole, CAF still isn't there -- the squads are still disorganized and flawed -- but the natural talent and athleticism of the continent as a whole bodes well for the future. Results in the World Cup have so far been disappointing -- out of fifteen teams that played in the past three World Cups, only two have advanced into the second round, and none did in 2006 -- but the promise is much greater. Any number of teams from the continent could break through, and we need to help that happen.
Increasing the quality of soccer in Africa has been a pet project of Blatter's and he's determined to see it through to completion. Giving CONCACAF's half spot to CAF isn't the whole answer, but if things keep progressing at their current pace, by 2014 the continent will deserve a shot to get six teams into the World Cup. It's a small step for sure, but one that needs to be taken.
