Why does UEFA continue to enter every team in the confederation into the same round of qualifying?

Why does UEFA continue to enter every team in the confederation into the same round of qualifying?

Literally every confederation has separate World Cup qualifying rounds for their teams except for CONMEBOL and UEFA. It makes sense for CONMEBOL, since the all the teams in their confederation are somewhat competent at football (the worst ranked CONMEBOL team is rank 73, the worst ranked team of every other confederation is rank 200+).

But in UEFA, we have non-countries like Gibraltar and San Marino fielding national teams, the majority of which are literally made up of part-timers. It makes no sense for those teams to be put in a group with the likes of Germany or Spain. It doesn't improve the small teams because they continue to get battered and they have no real chance of learning or even gaining possession of the ball. And it is pretty much a waste of time for the bigger teams since they could probably field a team of second-division players and still comfortably win. It's not even a good opportunity to try out new tactics or players since they're not truly being tested against a team of part-timers.

Then there's the issue of how the teams are distributed in the WC qualifying groups. Take the Russia 2018 groups, group A has three teams that are ranked 40 or higher (France, Netherlands, Sweden) while group E only has one (Poland). Since only a maximum of two teams from each group can qualify, a relatively decent side from group A will not qualify while a relatively shit team will have a much better chance at qualifying. And the draws for the second-place play-offs being random means that there's a chance a relatively shit team reaches the proper tournament, which just means that the group stages end up being boring.

>It doesn't improve the small teams
But if they played against Norway more often they could one day beat Spain. Your innovation would sort that out, right?

>making the groups even tougher

n-no thanks

Fuck off fat poster.

I like all countries, its a beautiful tradition and something to be cherished in this money rilled football world.

What are you afraid of? Being eliminated by part timers? Oh wait...

And then comes Hungary, losing to Andorra and ruining the narrative.

But yeah, I want those pointless fixtures removed for once.

That'd be kind of unfair, like splitting a class in two so the not so smart children stop being a hindrance.

This. And:

>live in a microstate
>be a proud citizen
>have a solid, full-time job
>be somewhat decent in football, but nowhere near (semi-)pro level
>get the chance of representing your country, playing against Europe's greatest players

Why would you want to take this away from them? How much of a jealous, fat neckbeard are you?

There should be more slots for UEFA countries tbqh

I'm a proud citizen of my country with a (let's assume) solid full time job and (let's pretend) somewhat decent in football.
Do I get a free chance to play against Germany too?

They'll probably never beat Spain or even qualify for the World Cup but they would improve slightly if they faced more opponents at the same level as them. You don't train 12-year olds by constantly playing them against senior teams until they suddenly become good. You constantly play them against other teams that are of a similar age bracket. Likewise, international teams should be practicing against teams of a similar quality to them. One of the reasons why England does so poorly in tournaments is because we get put in a piss-easy group, comfortably top the group and struggle against the first half-decent team we come across.

I just don't see anyone who benefits from this. Both the big teams and small teams don't benefit from one-sided matches, the fans of bigger teams don't really care about their national team statpadding against non-countries and I really don't think the fans of smaller teams enjoy watching their country get humiliated every game.

Again, every other confederation has qualification with multiple stages, I don't see why UEFA can't adopt it too.

They might have lost on purpose due to the incoming qualifying system. I wouldnt be surprised. They are probably aware their chances to qualify to the WC were very slim anyway, so lets tank hard and be placed in UEFA div 4

>against non-countries

rude

They don't get it taken away from them. They earn the right to face the big boys by beating the other micro nations.

Take the worst 6 nations and put them in a qualifying group. They get 10 competitive games against teams of similar standard instead of getting beat up every time they play. Then the top 2 get to play with the big boys.

Like I said, jealous manchild.

>REEEE THEY GET TO LIVE MY FANTASIES, GET RID OF THOSE FIXTURES NOW

nah it's good like this, team get stronger or weaker quite rapidly and frequently
think of Iceland, Wales or Bosnia on one hand and Norway or the Netherlands on the other

the only clear divide is regular nations/microstates, but who cares they're just a bunch of part timers having the time of their life, and i think pros can take a day less of vacation to play that sort of game even though it's meaningless

>fixing unbroken things

Do you honestly believe that it would make any difference at all? You think there are nations that would've been WC/EC winners if they didn't have to play San Marino twice in two years of qualis?

oh shit that must be the lamest excuse for England mediocrity i've heard yet
you guys failed to qualify against Croatia and Russia not even a decade ago and still talk shit? have some decency

England are mediocre for a number of reasons, but the easy qualification groups is still a minor factor.

Personally I think we should get rid of seeding too, make the group draws totally random and fair.

Of course that would never happen as lots of revenue would be lost.

If it's a non-issue then why does literally every other confederation adopt a different format? It's fine for the Euros qualifications since a significant number of teams can qualify from each group anyway (pretty much half the confederation qualified for the 2016 Euros). But the World Cup only has 13 spots for UEFA teams. That combined with the fact that the groups are almost never balanced means that it becomes unfair on certain teams that get put in a group of death.

I don't get how excluding weaker countries would fix anything. They won't qualify anyway and even without them there would certainly be at least one group of death.

That's not the point

CONMEBOL here...

Our format is a round robin because it would be meme af to decide 4.5 spots splitting 10 countries in 2 groups.

>your argument is based on FIFA rankings

I'm a burger and even I know the rankings are bullshit.

It would remove the utterly pointless fixtures. Any of the weaker sides that make it to the final round of qualification would deserve to be there, even if they don't have a realistic chance of qualifying. Also having less teams would mean that less groups are needed and, by extension, more teams from each group would be able to qualify. So even though groups of death will still exist, it will be less harsh on the team that finishes third in a group of death.

That's pretty much what I explained in the OP. It's fine for CONMEBOL since they have barely any members and the skill gap is relatively low. Even in OFC (which only has 11 members) splits their qualification into two rounds because the worst four teams are simply much worse than the better teams.

FIFA rankings aren't perfect but they're decent enough at deciding the worst teams in the confederation, which is why pretty much every other confederation takes them into account.

Like these things aren't preplanned

Take for example Poland, which conveniently gets a cushy group for the WC in neighboring Russia, where half the country will probably make the short trip.

Also expect Russia to get a group like San Marino, Tahiti, and Washington Generals in the real thing

FIFA is already counting the potential revenue desu