<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jewell @ Sep 7 2006, 02:31 PM) [snapback]376937[/snapback]</div>
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.
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I do see your point Jewell regarding certain small countries, basically all your teams in tier 5, are never going to become that amazing (I dont think its fair to say they'll never get better, I think you have to look at these things relatively - if Liechtenstein could become a tier 4 team, without patronising them that would be the equivalent of England winning the World Cup).
What I wonder though is at what tier level you would start having pre qualifying. If it's just tier 5 then I think my point about it having limited effect still stands, but the more tiers you bring in the more nations there are that have to play an increased number of fixtures and I thought this was something managers of club teams were trying to cut down.
Btw, to clarify about the Portuguese matter, minnows Gil Vicente have taken have taken legal action against their football association (FPF) after being relegated last season for gaining eligibility for a player - Angola star Mateus - at a civil court. This is against the rules and could technically cost Benfica and Porto their CL places. Same thing as would have happened withthe Italian sides if Juve if they had continued their appeal. Any ban would be the harshest penalty FIFA could impose and the lack of news about this after it broke suggests to me that it almost certainly won't happen.
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