EDIT: I'm going to reply properly to the previous post.
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I appreciate that 13-0 scorelines make something of a mockery of the notion of competition, but that really is a freak result. All the pundits on TV have belittled Andorra's performance against England, but I dont class 5-0 as a whooping and frankly I expected more. [/b]
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When you look at the gulf in class between sides like Germany and England to those of Andorra et al, 13-0 scorelines should be far more prevalent. But not everybody takes the sort of attitude towards these games, that Germany did last night.
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How are the lesser nations supposed to improve if they are never given a chance to play against the top sides. Furthermore how would you decide who has to go through pre-qualifying?[/b]
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Countries like Andorra and Liechtenstein will never improve no matter who they play. They simply don't have a large enough population which consequently means they don't have a large enough pool of players from which to select a decent team. It's a fact of life and one which we can't do alot about.
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Given the fact that N Ireland failed to score a single goal in the last Euro Championships qualifying presumably they would have been contenders to go into a hypothetical pre-qualifying tourney if one had been created for the 2008 championships, yet they beat Spain this week. Would players like Eidur Gudjohnsen have ever emerged if 106th place Iceland had been confined to a pre-qualifying tournament?[/b]
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But wouldn't you say teams could improve at a faster rate by playing other teams of a similar standard? I don't see what one can learn by taking regular hammerings.
BTW, players like Eidur Gudjohnson emerge through the club ranks.
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Now I dont really see where you would draw the line for a pre-qualifying tournament. The fact of the matter is even ignoring the bottom 8 ranked european teams the standard of football ranges from the excellent to the risible. I think looking at the rankings as they stand at the moment that Cyprus would be the obvious cutoff point, but I dont really think that when people talk of pre-qualifying they are necessarily talking about the likes of Cyprus, Armenia and Azerbaijan. I mean we didnt destroy Azerbaijan last time we went to Baku and whilst they dont win often they dont get hammered so regularly that I think they could be said to be undeserving of a place in the Euro qulalifiers and the chance to play top level teams.[/b]
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You make an excellent point of how Azerbaijan have improved over the last few years. That's why I believe UEFA need to be careful in who they put into pre-qualifying. They should
only handpick the crappest teams and put them into pre-qualifying rather base it on the rankings.
If I had my way, there would be a five-tier grouping, with the bottom group having to pre-qualify.
It would be as following;
Tier 1 - England, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Holland and Czech Rep.
Tier 2 - Sweden, Croatia, Russia, Greece, Turkey, Switzerland, Ukraine etc.
Tier 3 - Belgium, Norway, Scotland, Austria, wales etc.
Tier 4 - Albania, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan ect.
Tier 5 - Andorra, Malta, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Luxembourg and Faroe Islands.