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
I agree with you, one cannot just look at numbers of countries on an continent or number of population. Of course Asia has much more inhabitants, but the two largest countries India and China are practically not present in the football World. African teams are very passionate, but so far haven't had much success in world cups. You could give them more slots, which of course would increase the chance that a few teams could come further into the tournament, but it wouldn't raise the quality of the tournament probably.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
I would actually favor a more dynamic mode of qualification, where only a few best countries directly qualify per continent (say half of the current numbers) and then the remaining spots are given in intercontinental playoffs or even a small tournament, like a mini B-world cup
