Minnows just not good enough for competitive internationals

Gibraltar boss Allen Bula has not had much to smile about as his team have lost their first two competitives games 7-0 in Euro 2016 qualifying

Gibraltar seem to make history with every competitive game they play.

The British overseas territory are the newest members of UEFA and have made an expectedly difficult start to life in competitive international football.

Heavy

They have made horrendous start to their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign by losing at home to Poland 7-0 in their opener and on Saturday suffered another 7-0 mauling this time at the hands of the Republic of Ireland.

In their second game in Dublin, Gibraltar boss Allan Bula decided to substitute keeper Jordan Perez after the seventh goal went in.

The keeper was bizarrely clapped off the pitch by the home fans, probably more in appreciation than out of sympathy.

Expected

To be fair on Gibraltar they have to expect these sorts of results against country’s that have better resources and pools of players to choose from. Lessons have to be learnt and very quickly, or they may become another San Marino.

To expect a team of part-time players to take on professional footballers is too much to ask. Only defender Scott Wiseman of Preston and midfielder Jake Gosling of Bristol Rovers are full-time professional players and at times it shows.

Pre-qualifiers

I have had the discussion about pre-qualifiers many times with people, as I believe some of these European Championship qualifiers are just a waste of everybody’s time. The bigger teams usually gain big wins, but learn nothing from the games, while the smaller teams take nothing home from these games but disappointment.

The answer would be for there to be pre-qualifiers with all the lower ranked teams taking part and the best then qualifying for the actual group stage of qualifying. That would mean smaller qualification groups and less matches for the sometimes already fatigued players.

The proof that games involving the minnows of world football are unattractive is the attendances for England’s game against San Marino and Ireland’s game against Gibraltar. Both attendances were low compared to previous home games, although England’s recent friendlies have also pulled in low crowds.

As a football fan and writer I take no joy in watching my home country England score a hat-full of goals past the likes of San Marino. I feel sorry for the opposition, because it must be demoralising to go out onto a football pitch and be beaten so badly in every game.

The goals might look good on players international records, but there is little to no challenge in beating minnows. Gibraltar are new to competitive football, so they should be forgiven for their poor standard of quality.

There are however teams that have been playing competitive football for along time in the likes of San Marino and Faroe Islands, who are beaten handsomely by most of their opponents in every qualification campaign.

Developing

Some would argue that these teams will not learn anything by not playing bigger opposition. However, they will gain experience in the pre-qualifers and the best of the minnows will end up in the proper qualifying and will earn the right to take on the bigger countries.

Hopefully pre-qualifying would improve the standard of some of the minnows, because at the moment they are just not good enough for competitive international games.

Increase

I recently wrote an article about UEFA increasing the number of teams playing at the Euro 2016 finals to 24 from 16. It seems that UEFA seem to want to increase the number of teams, rather than decreasing the number of teams in their competitions.

It seems that UEFA are insistent on playing more meaningless games, rather than just playing games that really matter in the grand scheme of things.

Elitist

Please do not dismiss my thinking as elitist. I believe that it would make more sense to have less teams in the qualification groups and reduce the number of games.

Some of the national teams taking part in qualification for Euro 2016 are completely out of their depth. Some of the results involved with these teams are seriously embarrassing and I cannot even imagine how the players involve must feel.

Surely some of the results in the last five days of Euro 2016 qualifiers must make UEFA rethink the whole qualification process.

Should pre-qualifiers be introduced for future campaigns?