Sweet 16!

I want to talk more about the number of teams in the World Cup thing. I have to emphasize that I am talking more as a football aficionado than a Team Melli fan.

Luis Carlos says in the comment section:

“ …… Iran is only in the World Cup, because their are 32 teams. That is an insult to Uruguay, Nigeria, Cameroon, and all the other great teams that didn’t make it….”

I think he is missing the point.

As I responded to him, Team Melli made it to Argentina when there were only 16 teams in the WC, and then they didn’t make it for another 20 years, during the time that FIFA was increasing the number of participating teams. Missing those World Cups had more to do with the 1979 revolution in Iran and the eight year war with Iraq than Iranian football itself. But I don’t want to go into that here.

Team Melli did not make it and that is that.

Now with all due respect to Uruguay, Nigeria, and Cameroon, they missed out, so tough!

Luis Carlos calls it an “insult”! Insult?!! Please! I call it “weak football”.

Uruguay finished FIFTH in South America and then blew their chance against the Aussies. Boo hoo hoo!

Nigeria and Cameroon did the same, lost points when they shouldn’t have. They have four years to fix things up so it won’t happen again. I congratulate Angola and Ivory Coast for a job well done.

My point is that, I want to see the very best teams out of each confederation. There is too much fluff in the World Cup as it is now.