What's the Point?

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.