Quote from: Slow death on June 12, 2022, 10:33:42 PM

~snip~

well in 2026 CONMEBOL will have 6 slots so they will be fine, while in africa we continue to be discriminated and humiliated as if in africa they are only participating because as the name says: " world cup " so all continents need to be represented. it makes no sense that:

the European continent has 16 slots

entire American continent (South America, North America, Central America and the Caribbean) have 12 slots

Asia has 8 slots seats

but Africa, which is a very big continent, only has 9 slots

FIFA should have placed at least 12 slots for Africa, but in the end these changes will only be seen in 2026, there are still many years to go

Africa has some great talent, many countries there have a great level of soccer.

But I'm not sure which countries in Africa are being left out of the world cup because there are only 9 slots. Maybe I'm missing some. Also, if you look at the history, no African team has yet advanced to the semi-finals, ever: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_nations_at_the_FIFA_World_Cup

It's not about the size of the continent, it's about how many countries are great at soccer.

For example, you mentioned Europe, which has the largest amount of spots. It's still very common to hear about amazing countries not being able to qualify. For example, Italy, which have won the world cup 4 times in the past, couldn't qualify for the 2022 world cup. So, even though they have a lot of spots, it's still extremely competitive to get one. There are just a lot of great soccer playing countries in Europe. If you look at history, an European country has won the world cup 5 times, and 13 other countries have been in the semi-final: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_nations_at_the_FIFA_World_Cup

Also, the groups for qualifications are not exactly by continents like you mentioned, in particular America is divided into CONCACAF(North America, Central America, and Caribbean) and CONMEBOL(South America) . You can see the historical data of each confederation here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_team_appearances_in_the_FIFA_World_Cup#Results_by_confederation

It's pretty clear that UEFA, and CONMEBOL should have the largest amounts of slots, as they just have the best performing countries, proven over the entire history of the tournament. If anything, I would argue those 2 confederations should have more slots.