What English division would Andorra be in?

[Easy 10]

Albion beat Mansfield 6-0 a few years back - was that a waste of time for all involved? The fact that you have laboured to 2-0 victories against this lot twice, as pointed out earlier, suggests they have a right to play you.

Rubbish.
You can't cherrypick singular random results like our 6-0 v Mansfield, compare that with last nights game and declare it "the same" to try and prove a point. Stuffings happen from time to time in every league in the world, when one team just doesn't turn up and plays bloody awful.

Andorra have won THREE games out of 85. 3 games in their entire history. They are simply not equipped to be involved in these groups, and that has been proved over the last 10 years.

 

[ATFC Seagull]

Rubbish.
You can't cherrypick singular random results like our 6-0 v Mansfield, compare that with last nights game and declare it "the same" to try and prove a point. Stuffings happen from time to time in every league in the world, when one team just doesn't turn up and plays bloody awful.

Andorra have won THREE games out of 85. 3 games in their entire history. They are simply not equipped to be involved in these groups, and that has been proved over the last 10 years.

They might not win much, but do they always get stuffed? The fact that you beat them last night could be seen as a singular result, seeing as you have struggled to beat them away on 2 occasions. Maybe I'm wrong, but I certainly know that Republic of Ireland have beaten, but not hammered, them in recent years.

Where would you draw the line? A few years ago Northern Ireland went over a year without scoring a goal. Then a few years later, they were beating sides like Spain, and um, England.

If you were to vote on this matter, I would imagine most countries would vote in favour of the minnows, cos it sets a dangerous precedent - any country going through a bad patch could slip out of the chance to play the big sides and challenge for qualification. What gives countries like yourselves to discard the rights of other countries? Would you say the same if England lost the majority of their games in a qualification campaign?

 

[Easy 10]

They might not win much, but do they always get stuffed? The fact that you beat them last night could be seen as a singular result, seeing as you have struggled to beat them away on 2 occasions. Maybe I'm wrong, but I certainly know that Republic of Ireland have beaten, but not hammered, them in recent years.

Where would you draw the line? A few years ago Northern Ireland went over a year without scoring a goal. Then a few years later, they were beating sides like Spain, and um, England.

If you were to vote on this matter, I would imagine most countries would vote in favour of the minnows, cos it sets a dangerous precedent - any country going through a bad patch could slip out of the chance to play the big sides and challenge for qualification. What gives countries like yourselves to discard the rights of other countries? Would you say the same if England lost the majority of their games in a qualification campaign?

Where would I draw the line ?
How about around 120th in the World Rankings ? That would then give these "minnows" something to aim for - a specific long-term target to achieve. Pre-qualifiers for ALL teams ranked 121st or worse (out of 202), with the winners of the pre-qualifying rounds earning their place in the World Cup qualifying groups. That way, we'll cut back on these meaningless forgone conclusions that clog up the groups proper.

 

[ATFC Seagull]

Where would I draw the line ?
How about around 120th in the World Rankings ? That would then give these "minnows" something to aim for - a specific long-term target to achieve. Pre-qualifiers for ALL teams ranked 121st or worse (out of 202), with the winners of the pre-qualifying rounds earning their place in the World Cup qualifying groups. That way, we'll cut back on these meaningless forgone conclusions that clog up the groups proper.

Sorry to bounce this back again.

For one thing that would mean getting rid of Oceania altogether I think - and would mean that CONCACAF would probably be fighting it out with only one of the "top" sides not qualifying.

Fact is that, yes, Andorra are not going to achieve anything. But some sides who are supposedly minnows do. I am pretty sure Wales and Northern Ireland have both slipped to close to that 120 mark - yet they have the ability to get results against top sides. And the rankings/seedings are ludicrous - take Group 8 for example. Montenegro & Georgia have both taken points from the top sides in the group.

 

[Easy 10]

Sorry to bounce this back again.

For one thing that would mean getting rid of Oceania altogether I think - and would mean that CONCACAF would probably be fighting it out with only one of the "top" sides not qualifying.

Fact is that, yes, Andorra are not going to achieve anything. But some sides who are supposedly minnows do. I am pretty sure Wales and Northern Ireland have both slipped to close to that 120 mark - yet they have the ability to get results against top sides. And the rankings/seedings are ludicrous - take Group 8 for example. Montenegro & Georgia have both taken points from the top sides in the group.

Then you go back to the lowest ranked teams in each respective World Cup region, and structure a pre-qualifying league around that. They already do something similar in CONCACAF I believe, whereby your Bahamas and Saint Kitts (for example) play off against each other in preliminary rounds before progressing to a proper World Cup qualifying group containing your Mexicos and USA's.

We just need something along those lines in Europe.

 

[Hannibal smith]

Here are the 8 bottom ranked teams in Europe (left number is world ranking, right of that is European ranking.

Why could they not have a competative tourny amongst themselves to go into Qualifying proper and reduce the groups by 2 games? I think Liechtenstein once scrapped a 0-0 v RoI but other than that I'm struggling to think where these teams have done anything other than get tanked week in week out. If there are two many games in football here is a good a place to start as any.

122 46 Estonia 265 -4 5
136 47 Azerbaijan 213 -2 4
140 48 Kazakhstan 206 -7 -4
151 49 Liechtenstein 147 0 0
154 50 Malta 134 -6 -17
185 51 Faroe Islands 42 0 0
195 52 Andorra 14 0 -6
201 53 San Marino 0 0 0

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Ok take the minnows out but you should then reduce the amount of teams go to the finals from Europe.

 

[ATFC Seagull]

Here are the 8 bottom ranked teams in Europe (left number is world ranking, right of that is European ranking.

Why could they not have a competative tourny amongst themselves to go into Qualifying proper and reduce the groups by 2 games? I think Liechtenstein once scrapped a 0-0 v RoI but other than that I'm struggling to think where these teams have done anything other than get tanked week in week out. If there are two many games in football here is a good a place to start as any.

122 46 Estonia 265 -4 5
136 47 Azerbaijan 213 -2 4
140 48 Kazakhstan 206 -7 -4
151 49 Liechtenstein 147 0 0
154 50 Malta 134 -6 -17
185 51 Faroe Islands 42 0 0
195 52 Andorra 14 0 -6
201 53 San Marino 0 0 0

See there lies the problem - Faroes, for example, are a difficult side to go and get a result against, and one of the real "characters" of European qualifiers. Malta likewise.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Didnt the mighty England draw with Malta a few years back?

 

[Easy 10]

Didnt the mighty England draw with Malta a few years back?

In a meaningless away friendly I believe, 0-0 on the eve of a World Cup (so its not like we'd have been giving it our all). Had it mattered, they'd have been beaten. Not necessarily a cricket score, but beaten.

Malta and the Faroe Islands pattern of results does not really bear out the asssertion that they are "difficult sides to go and get a result against".

 

[Hannibal smith]

See there lies the problem - Faroes, for example, are a difficult side to go and get a result against, and one of the real "characters" of European qualifiers. Malta likewise.

I must admit I was surprised to see Faroes so low. I think they have beaten Scotland and Austria in recent years but I’m not sure that warrants an automatic spot in Euro and World Qualifying. I’m sure me and a group of mates could give Andorra a game.

At one point in the second half, I counted how many passes they could string together in a move. From half time to the 75th minute the longest move was 3 passes. They did admittedly then string about 10 together but probably 6 of those were in their own half before they lost the ball. Andorra and San Marino could give each other a game. All they do against other teams is putt 11 men behind the ball.