What on earth is the point in the San Marino national football team?
No seriously, was someone at Uefa / FIFA having a laugh when they decided to put a European micro state with a population not yet big enough to fill Craven Cottage against the superpowers of world football?
Presumably the FIFA representatives went along the lines of "Well, it's in Italy, Italy are a good team, what could possibly go wrong?"
OK, so they might have scored against England after 20 seconds back in 1993, but apart from that, there is little to brag about.
Euro 2008 qualification is just three rounds old and already San Marino, ranked 194th in the world, already "boast" a current record of Played 3, Won 0, Lost 3, Goals scored 0, Goals conceded 26.
A 13-0 hiding at home to Germany, a 7-0 battering against the Czech Republic and a 5-0 hiding tonight against Ireland suggest that, if anything, they are getting better but for the San Marians it couldn't really have got much lower.
The players are on a hiding to nothing. They have no local infrastructure, a virtually non-existent talent pool and a shoestring budget. The problem lies with Uefa who insist on asking players to jump straight into the deep-end with a concrete block strapped around their waist.
Not only do the players miss out, the supporters are hit as well. Just 34,000 turned up at Lansdowne Road, hardly ready to embrace the prospect of a double-digit hiding.
And Uefa's solution to the current spate of mismatches? They've granted a Euro 2012 qualification place to the footballing might of Gibraltar.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
What's the Point?
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3 comments:
Every nation has a right to represent themselves at whatever level of competition they may provide.
Admittedly we may require a pre-qualification round a la Champion's league style.
Gibraltar may not be an A-list super footballing nation but we love football and we have as much right as any other nation of representation.
Regards
From Gibraltar
p.s. We have not been accepted quite yet due to Spain'sinsistence on politicising sport.
I have no objection to any nation being able to compete. But that's the problem. UEFA will be expecting Gibraltar to compete with the likes of England, Italy and Germany.
Instead, a two tier system is needed for Euro / World Cup qualification. With the smaller teams facing each other, with the best of those moving forward to take on the larger nations.
I respect Gibraltar's right to compete in any competition. However, the current system is not suited to the 'smaller' nations as it is and as a result, I feel that it's wrong to add even more nations into such a system.
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