Fifa Road To World Cup Qualification?

Question

Why is it that, the qualification stage, is split within the different confederations, for example, England are competing in the European qualifying, and Brazil in the South American qualifying. Why isn't the qualification tables, done with all the countries competing?... wouldn't this make it more interesting?.. of Course then It would be a shame for some continents, that only for example 1 nation qualified from Europe.. but that can't be the reason?

Answer 1

Good question! But since qualy began, FIFA always choose Continental criteria. That is the reason because now Australia is part of Asian Confederation and that was controversial, of course.

So, teams like England and Brazil could be face to face officially only in Confederations Cup and World Cup.

Answer 2

FIFA have proportioned the number of qualifiers per region based on past performance, etc.  Random qualification groups would get messy, require lots of potential for wasted travel and we'd never get a chance to see some regions represented.  Hence, it would not be the WORLD Cup.

Answer 3

Scheduling and travel are perhaps the biggest factors.

As it is, the schedules for domestic leagues only allow for World Cup qualifying matches to be played at a rate of maybe two matches every other month. And those two matches are played within the space of 4-5 days (first on a Saturday, then on a Wednesday).

It would be impossible to play one match in South-East Asia and then five days later play in South America. The jet lag would be next to impossible to overcome.