Is anyone else utterly uninspired by the qualification
tournament for the European Championships in 2016?
I want to see England playing competitive football
against the likes of Spain (last in 1996), Italy (once since 1997), and France
(twice this century). I know we'd lose
lots but, like rugby union's 6-nations, it's when Europe's best compete that
we're interested!
Someone needs to tell San Marino/Faroe Isles/Andorra that
they're not very good, never will be, and they should not be wasting our time.
Can we please keep the Euro finals to 16 teams, keep the
main draw of qualification to the teams in the world's top 100 and stop
allowing Asian countries to masquerade as European to cash in on European
football? Please?
Maybe we'd replace pointless qualification games with a
Spring series of 4 international games with European nations split into
divisions of 5 with annual promotion & relegation?
In case you're wondering England would be in div 2 (on
world rankings) against: Netherlands, Belgium, Greece & Croatia. Exciting
& evenly matched internationals...there's an idea!!
That would mean missing out on games against the
following...
Asian: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Cyprus, Turkey,
Israel, Kazakhstan
Currently too poor: Gibraltar, Andorra, San Marino, Faroe Islands,
Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Malta
Would you miss football against that lot? Who's with me?
