How two-tier system could end blight of qualifying routs
Backs calls for change to World Cup to give minnows fair crack as England prepare to face Luxembourg
When England can hammer a side 8-0 and yet win only by the fourth-biggest margin across the opening fixtures, it is clear something is severely flawed within Europe’s qualification process for the Women’s World Cup, which at times is about as competitive as a race between a greyhound and a Shih Tzu.
France, Spain and Norway all breezed to 10-0 wins as no fewer than seven matches had a margin of victory of seven goals or greater, including the Lionesses’ thrashing of a North Macedonia side who predominantly have day jobs away from football.
Such a rout is potentially on the cards again tonight when England are away to Luxembourg in their second qualifier in Group D at 7.15pm.
It is hard to imagine that a 10-0 loss to Spain helped grow the sport of women’s football in the Faroe Islands, or that three-time major tournament winners Norway learnt anything from reaching double figures against Armenia.
The main reason for these onesided affairs is that, in the women’s game, unlike the men’s, few nations invest the resources for full-time players, meaning that those teams with top-level professionals are now streets ahead of the rest. It begs the question: does the format need to change to help the sport grow?
It is an issue which concerns the new England head coach, Sarina Wiegman. The 51-year-old said: “What you want to do is develop women’s football worldwide, of course, but the difference between qualities now is actually huge and it’s not very competitive when you win 8-0.
“So we have to find a way and keep the discussion open at all times. What’s best to get the women’s game on a higher level, for the top teams, but also for the countries that are somewhere else in their development?
“I don’t have the solution but having too many matches which finish 8-0 – or those kinds of results – that’s not good for the game.”
There are many ways to reduce the high frequency of matches between teams ranked outside of the world’s 100 and those in the top 10. After all, there is a reason why Zimbabwe rarely face India in cricket, and tennis tournament organisers will be sensible enough never to ask Emma Raducanu to go through qualifying again.
So, if it is time for football to change its antiquated method for producing European qualifiers for the Women’s World Cup, how should it be done instead?
First, to explain the current procedure, there are 51 European teams taking part, split into nine groups.
Everybody plays everybody else in their group twice – yes, that is right, poor old North Macedonia have got to go through 90 more minutes of being torn apart by England’s Beth Mead – in a round-robin format.
The nine group winners qualify automatically for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, with the runners-up entering a lengthy play-off system. But on the way, a team such as England will face home-and-away meetings with Latvia, who lost 8-1 to Austria on Friday, as well as another amateur side in Luxembourg.
One alternative would be a twotier system. Having Europe’s topranked sides in their own, separate tier would stop the lowest-ranked countries having to play teams such as eight-time European champions Germany and would create more frequent competitive matches between teams such as Andorra and Kazakhstan, while England could face France or Sweden in more meaningful games.
In such a two-tiered format, the winners of groups made up of the lower-ranked sides could progress to a play-off system against the strugglers in tier one, which would give every lower-ranked team in the process at least a glimmer of hope of qualifying. Luxembourg were beaten 4-0 on Friday by Northern Ireland, who in turn were hammered 6-0 by England in a friendly in February. Wiegman revealed that Chelsea forward Fran Kirby is fit and available for tonight’s game after missing Friday’s opener with a knock. The Dutch coach also confirmed that Arsenal’s Leah Williamson would continue to captain the side in the absence of Steph Houghton (ankle).