It could be Panama away!

[walrus]

www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/jul/21/jonathan-wilson-the-question-world-cup

Johnathan Wilson's latest gem. For those who don't wish to read the article he is advocating a 16 team world cup but qualifiers to have a second stage world group. So wales could draw Cameroon Panama and Japan home and away.
More Likely we would be pot 4 and get Brazil Japan and Ghana home and away. Madness or common sense in today's shrinking world?

[georgetm1]

Clubs would be totally against it, hours and hours of travelling and the players get jetlag. It would also cost FA's way to much money, does he think small nations could afford to travel half way round the world even Wales would struggle to pay for it. It would destroy grassroots football for a lot of nations because the money would be going somewhere else. Nice idea, but not practical.

[saints19]

A few major problems with his argument:

- Travelling for small teams would be impossible.
- Qualifiers are already meaningful. That man should watch the celebrations when a team wins the play-offs. Just because you have a couple of fairly straightforward games against a team like Moldova or the Faroes (and there are still shocks in those games which are great for the small teams) doesn't mean the qualifiers aren't meaningful.
- If the second round of qualifying would be drawn randomly (and he doesn't suggest otherwise), you could actually end up with a lower standard at the finals than at present.

[walrus]

What if the tournament had a major airline as sponsor?

[bale-droed]

the guys bonkers.

[scoop76]

Wilson says an expanded European Championship of 24 teams is a bad idea.

But for Wales anything that increases our chances of qualifying is a good thing.

[walrus]

24 teams is like fools gold.

[idiot]

it's a nice idea but its totally unrealistic,it would kill a lot of FA's