European qualifiers – success for the home nations, but are these fixtures worth it?

John Howell argues that the European qualifiers are not benefiting everyone, so should UEFA look at scrapping these games? 

It’s been a successful week for the home nations. The Welsh are enjoying a mini-renaissance, Northern Ireland surprisingly top their group, Scotland are underway with a win and the Republic of Ireland are currently second ahead of World Champions Germany in theirs. And whilst England fans may murmur over a laboured Estonia win, looking at the big picture, there is a rare collective joy to be to be had for those in the British Isles.

The same cannot be said for the likes of Gibraltar and San Marino, who collectively leaked 12 goals against Ireland and England respectively.

The hapless performances shown by two of the many minnow countries that consistently make up the bottom of these tables has led to renewed calls for a pre-qualifying tournament to be held before they can even attempt to test the elite of international football.  

Yet isn’t that against the spirit of football? To almost steal a phrase from the late John Candy in the 1993 Disney film Cool Runnings, haven’t these players earned the right to represent their nation against the world’s best, regardless of the outcome?

Well, no.

We aren’t talking about the sort of teams that can cause an upset. The outcome is never in doubt when the likes of Andorra, Luxembourg, and Azerbaijan come to town. These national sides are traditionally made up of part-time semi-professionals and the odd striker plying their trade professionally in a basement European league.  

It’s a waste of time and resource to stage fixtures such as England vs San Marino, where score lines such as those seen last week reach beyond the borders of farcical. To take a topical quote from UEFA’s official website previewing the match; “San Marino’s football team sit 190 places below England in the FIFA rankings and even if the nation’s entire population of 33,000 came to Wembley tonight, there would still be 57,000 spare seats for England fans”. San Marino have only ever won one game in their entire history.

A pre-qualifying tournament that gives minor ranking teams points will not only help these teams progress with adding some form of winning to their footballing history, but also help level the playing field. If San Marino were to top a pre-qualifying group with the likes of Liechtenstein and similar sides in, then they have earned their spot to challenge the likes of England.

It also fails to benefit the leading national teams. Yes, David Nugent will always have that goal against Andorra to his name, but the exercise as a whole is futile. With the result in no doubt, starting line-ups for the elite sides are usually that of an experimental nature, whilst those big names that are on the pitch usually fail to perform to their potential. It’s a canter for goalkeepers like Joe Hart, who may as well purchase a ticket and watch from the stands.

The constant drubbings that occur game after game these minnow sides play in cannot carry on. UEFA may as well hand six points each to all other sides in the group from the start.

Sadly this writer can’t see the idea catching on any time soon. Minnows have been competing (for lack of a better word) in the European and World Cup qualifiers for decades. If governing bodies FIFA and UEFA haven’t taken any lessons from the results by now, they never will.

Do you think these games should continue? What would be a viable alternative? 

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