WHY UEFA ARE TO BLAME FOR THE ALBANIA MIX-UP

Albania’s players were nonplussed in Paris last week, when their French hosts played the national anthem of Andorra by mistake. To compound the insult, when the mistake was corrected, the stadium announcer then apologised to any visitors from Armenia who might have been offended. And, of course, the fault lies with sloppy organisation.

Yet in UEFA qualifying campaigns, one mismatch can merge confusingly into the next. England have started this campaign with three straight wins of four goals or more, while san Marino are currently 71-0 down since last scoring at home, and have won once in 163 matches.

Rather than bring in pre- qualifiers or a tier system, however, UEFA continue adding numbers to the finals in a desperate pretence at parity. Kosovo, who play England in southampton tonight, have channelled the fervour of a fledgling nation and are unbeaten. Yet they are hardly typical. There are now 25 countries from within what might be termed the old eastern bloc, and only six of them are in the top two of their groups: Kosovo, Ukraine, Hungary, Croatia, Poland and Russia.

Meanwhile, the goal difference numbers after no more than six games — and in some cases, just four — tell a sorry tale. san Marino -24, latvia, lichtenstein -18, Faroe islands -17, Gibraltar -16, Estonia -12, Malta, Moldova, Andorra -11, Azerbaijan -8, lithuania, belarus, Montenegro -7. Every now and then a major nation comes a cropper somewhere like Kazakhstan and it is used to justify the system. but it is no wonder Andorra and Armenia become interchangeable at the end of a long day or clubs pressure players to skip the trip to serravalle, home of san Marino. There is too much meaningless football and players are exhausted as it is. not to mention announcers.