Royalee General Football Blog

[handbags_harris]

That will be interesting because it's something I have pretty strong views on.

[Terminal Boardom]

Comment posted. Good blog!

[Royalee]

Spot on TB having just had a look at your comment. I've been a bit preoccupied out on the lash for a mate's birthday and playing the new NHL game (which is brilliant), but the goalscoring opportunity article will be up tomorrow/today.

[Royalee]

New article is finally up on Law 12 regarding sending players off for preventing a goalscoring opportunity http://royaleeblog.blogspot.com . Let me know what you think...there'll be another article to follow very soon on the England striker selection, I've just been pretty busy in the last week so haven't had chance to write - normal service should now be resumed.

[Royalee]

It would seem I've neglected this somewhat over the last month in terms of posting - I shall be writing new articles this week and will keep everyone posted. These will include the debate surrounding Ireland's exit from the World Cup for starters and I also have 4 other topics lined up.

[Royalee]

FINALLY a new post up - I've chosen to look into the World Cup Qualification process in terms of UEFA and what I'd like to change within it.

Again, I'd be interested to now what people think and any constructive feedback is welcomed!
http://royaleeblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/world-cup-qualification.html

[handbags_harris]

Another interesting and well-thought-out blog, although I don't agree with the sentiment. I would go in completely the opposite direction and completely de-seed the draws, so it makes it completely random at all stages. I also question why San Marino, Liechtenstein, Andorra etc should have to pre-qualify. I don't see what good that does. Yes it would lower the number of games, but the clubs don't run the game, the national FA's, UEFA, and FIFA do. In effect you're the clubs would deny the players of smaller countries the opportunity to play at the San Siro, Bernabeo, Wembley etc? Is that really fair? If you're successful you pay the price. Simple in my mind.

[Royalee]

It might deny a few of them the chance, but for these games the stadiums aren't full and interest drops - the pace of the game falls and it descends into attack vs defence. Perhaps if these countries played each other more then they'd benefit from the closer competition and more games for them - I'm guessing the league systems in these countries aren't that intensive so maybe the extra games for them would generate more income for these FAs and improve their players also. I think it works for all parties, but I can see where you're coming from. I can't see any change like this happening with Platini and Blatter in office though!

Thanks again for the feedback, it's appreciated. I'll be writing a few more articles in the coming weeks as it's something I enjoy - hope people can enjoy them.

[Royalee]

Happy New Year to everyone, I've just decided on my 'Premier League Team of The Decade' and have posted it up if anyone fancies a look, suggestions welcome!

http://royaleeblog.blogspot.com/2009/12 ... ecade.html

[cmonurz]

Some good points but your WC qualification blog fails to look at any opposing arguments. What about experience for players of lesser nations against the big teams, or the money generated by playing those teams (you talk of lesser revenues for England when we play a small team, but what about increased revenues for them?). The qualification process is inclusive, as far as I know there are few, if any, restrictions to entry other than being a UEFA member and having an establised FA. That can only be a good thing, and I'm not in support of protecting the weary legs of 'star' players from the inconvenience of playing Andorra twice every four years.

[Royalee]

New article posted on the 'Top Five Managers Outside The Premiership', enjoy!

http://royaleeblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/best-manager-outside-premiership.html

[sandman]

Where is Brendan Rodgers? Oh yeah that's right he isn't managing a club atm is he! Maybe you could do a blog on the top five football managers so bad that they are currently struggling to find work as a floor sweeper at McDonalds.

[papereyes]

Another interesting and well-thought-out blog, although I don't agree with the sentiment. I would go in completely the opposite direction and completely de-seed the draws, so it makes it completely random at all stages. I also question why San Marino, Liechtenstein, Andorra etc should have to pre-qualify. I don't see what good that does. Yes it would lower the number of games, but the clubs don't run the game, the national FA's, UEFA, and FIFA do. In effect you're the clubs would deny the players of smaller countries the opportunity to play at the San Siro, Bernabeo, Wembley etc? Is that really fair? If you're successful you pay the price. Simple in my mind.

The only thing is that the small countries are fantastically small. They're pretty much never going to compete.


This is from months ago

Anyone who thought that countries like Ukraine and Croatia wouldn't end up being half-decent was a complete mongtard.

I did have the opinion of TBM and Dirk on this, but then I bothered to look at the countries we're talking about:

The 11 worst countries in UEFA consist of the least populous nations (every country with a side with a population of less than 1 million (Montenegro, Luxembourg, Malta, Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands, Andorra, San Marino) with two exceptions*; the next most populous country (Estonia) and three countries that lie to the East of the Black Sea (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazachstan)x.

*Iceland and Cyprus.
xGeorgia is the only other UEFA nation to the East of the Black sea
All three of these countries are in the next 6 of the FIFA rankings system - the bottom 17 nations in UEFA consist of the 10 smallest and 4 of the poorest.

And UEFA want to add Gibraltar into the mix.

If we were to organise a Thought Tournament, the 12 sides entering would be San Marino, Andorra, Faroe Islands, Liechtenstein, Malta, Azerbaijan, Kazachstan, Armenia, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Estonia, Moldova.

They'd also get points by actually getting out of the pre-qualifying.

Further to that, every other confederation bar CONMEBOL does it. CONACAF does a caribbean pre-qualifying with the bigger teams coming in the second round to muller Barbados and the Bahamas.

I don't think Montenegro are going to stay as low as they are - although they haven't yet won in qualifying, they've a solid record 0-4-2 with defeats to only Italy in the group.

Have a suitably large number of pre-qualifiers (my suggestion was 4 from 12) and they get competitive games against teams of a similar standard. At the moment, they're not even being drawn against those teams because of the seeding system!


EDIT: current standings of these 12 countries (11th June)

Bottom of their group: Malta, Moldova, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Armenia, Andorra, Faroe Islands

Second Bottom: Azerbaijan, Kazachstan, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Estonia

[Archie's penalty]

Way to clique of boredom general football Papes!

[Royalee]

Interesting stuff Papereyes - I just think that a pre-qualification stage might add to the interest for smaller nations, kind of in the same mindset as our fans who were of the opinion that relegation from the Premiership would make football more fun again as we might actually win games as opposed to fighting to keep our heads above water (how wrong they were!).

[papereyes]

Way to clique of boredom general football Papes!

Clique of Boredom BOMB

[Royalee]

Any topics people fancy reading about?

[Archie's penalty]

Terrorism and football?

[papereyes]

Interesting stuff Papereyes - I just think that a pre-qualification stage might add to the interest for smaller nations, kind of in the same mindset as our fans who were of the opinion that relegation from the Premiership would make football more fun again as we might actually win games as opposed to fighting to keep our heads above water (how wrong they were!).

I agree.

I just think that the moment you look at the sizes of these countries, you realise what they're up against. 4 groups of 3 and the winners qualify to join the main pot (41 teams and that goes down to those giants of world football, Moldova) to give 45 teams - 9 groups of 5, winners qualify, playoffs if another 4-5 teams needed. Bingo bango bongo.

[handbags_harris]

Interesting stuff Papereyes - I just think that a pre-qualification stage might add to the interest for smaller nations, kind of in the same mindset as our fans who were of the opinion that relegation from the Premiership would make football more fun again as we might actually win games as opposed to fighting to keep our heads above water (how wrong they were!).

I agree.

I just think that the moment you look at the sizes of these countries, you realise what they're up against. 4 groups of 3 and the winners qualify to join the main pot (41 teams and that goes down to those giants of world football, Moldova) to give 45 teams - 9 groups of 5, winners qualify, playoffs if another 4-5 teams needed. Bingo bango bongo.

Like I say, I don't agree. A major issue with the smaller nations involves that of seeding which merely serves to favour the larger nations and massively disadvantage the smaller nations. What I would like to see introduced is purely random draws, so when a qualifying draw is made for a tournament you could be faced with a group with England, Italy, Germany, Spain, Wales, and Poland. Likewise, you could end up with a group with Liechtenstein, Andorra, Luxembourg, Turkey, Lithuania, and San Marino. This then potentially gives a number smaller nations the opportunity to get to the big stage. Of course, it works both ways. I don't see why a small nation which sits on an equal footing side by side to the likes of Italy, Spain, France, Germany etc then has to pre-qualify for a tournament that is supposedly open to all FIFA/UEFA members.