The failure of Asia, the triumph of Africa: how it was

Expanding the number of participants to 48 teams provided a great opportunity for discussions. The main disadvantage of such an expansion is the large number of frankly left-wing national teams in the tournament, which means a very large number of matches where there is a clear favorite. Against the background of this dissatisfaction, another dilemma somehow got sidetracked - representation from one or another continental confederation. This is what I propose to reflect on, moving from smaller to larger. Oceania - 1. Oceania received one guaranteed place, which with great probability will go to New Zealand. It was the country's third appearance at the World Cup, and while in 1982 the New Zealanders lost all three matches by a wide margin, and in 2010 they drew all three matches, although they still missed the play-offs, but stopped the reigning world champions, the Italians, they now occupy a solid last place, with one point, 2-2 in the first tour with Iran. In principle, there are no issues with Oceania. She does not have to count on a larger amount, and probably also on a smaller one. In general, we are waiting for the progress of New Zealand football, especially since the New Zealand club Auckland became the champion of Australia this year. North and Central America - 6. Haiti (played at the World Cup 74) and two newcomers to the tournament — Panama and Curacao — joined the three host teams. A trio of the home team made it through to the play-offs with confidence, while the rest finished last in their groups, losing a total of eight matches out of nine with a combined score of 3-21. Be that as it may, six teams is a lot for this region. South America - 6. I was already thinking about the absurdity of the American selection, when out of ten participants, six go directly and the seventh enters the intercontinental playoffs. But you can't do anything: there are few countries in South America, and football is developed and popular in all of them without exception. Of the six American representatives, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia won their groups, Paraguay and Ecuador came from third place, let Ecuador beat completely unmotivated Germans in the last round, who had already secured first place, and only Uruguay was eliminated. Sensationally finishing penultimate with two points in a group with Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde. That is, 5 teams out of six in the playoffs, and this is a very good indicator. It turns out that reducing the South American representation is pointless, and there is simply no way to increase it. Asia – 9 (8+1 in intercontinental selection). Of the nine Asian teams, only Japan and Australia (Australia goes through Asian selection) made it to the playoffs. They took second place in their groups. Iran and South Korea dropped out of third place. At the same time, Iran was eliminated without losing (but not winning) a single match, and Korea itself is to blame for its fiasco - there was nothing to lose to South Africa in the last round, when the team was satisfied with a draw. Saudi Arabia finished last with two points, Qatar with one, while Iraq, as well as tournament debutants Uzbekistan and Jordan, lost all their matches. 9 matches - 9 defeats with a combined score of 6-31, with Iraq, who had just won the intercontinental qualifier, the worst team in the tournament, and Uzbekistan third from bottom. As a result, only 22% of Asian teams qualified and 55.5% finished last in their groups. In 27 matches, the Asians won only three... It is obvious that for Asia, 9 teams and even eight are too many and, objectively speaking, their representation should be reduced. Africa – 10 (9+1 winner of the intercontinental selection). But the Africans performed excellently. Out of ten teams, only Tunisia was eliminated, which took the penultimate place. As expected, the change of the head coach after the first match, which is absurd for such a fast-moving tournament, did not help either. Instead, the rest went to the playoffs. South Africa, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Egypt and World Cup newcomer Cape Verde finished second in their groups, with Cape Verde, like Iran, never losing or winning, Senegal, Ghana, DR Congo and Algeria coming from third. Senegal became the only team to squeeze into the play-offs with three points thanks to a thrashing of unmotivated, underdog Iraq. 90% of African teams are in the playoffs, and this seems like a strong reason to increase the quota. Let me remind you that quite decent national teams of Cameroon, Nigeria, Mali, and Guinea did not make it to the World Cup, so there is potential. Europe - 16. Euro already has the largest quota - exactly one third of the participants represent the Old World. Out of 16 teams, only three were eliminated - the Czechs and Turks from the last place and the Scots