I am blaming FIFA, they are the main problem. And to make it worse they are making both EURO and WC even bigger and less appealing. It is all about the money and we will enter into place when football will start loosing its audience.
Few years ago I was still watching every CL game, every big derby in Spain or Italy, every game on every EURO or WC. Now there is so much football that I am basically watching just Premier League, and some big matches in CL. Other leagues are ignored and it never crosses my mind to watch some stupid national team game, unless it is again a duel between top teams, Croatia or I have a shitload of money on it.
If these players are not protected in the same way that referees are, we may have to revisit the Super League discussion because they provided a solution to what we currently have. Reduced match time and more
Africa has crazy qualifiers. I just read an article today on how difficult it is to qualify.
Long distance travel on bumpy roads, often without airplanes, constant hostile environments away from home and no margin for error. I will follow it more this time around - now more teams have a chance, right?
Lol Some fields are intentionally left in poor condition for home advantage, but no country I know uses the road owing to border insecurity. Nigeria may fail to qualify for the next World Cup for the second time in a row. Our strikers are the best in Africa, but our midfield and defence are abysmal.