I’ve long believed that having European Championships co-hosts is a detriment to the tournament. Mostly because out of 16 teams, two don’t have to qualify. That’s one eighth of all teams. And in some cases those teams wouldn’t necessarily have qualified - see Austria and Switzerland this past summer.

Expanding the Euros to 24 team (which is on the cards for 2016) would make co-hosting less problematic. But if we expand the number of hosts along with the number of teams, we end up back where we started, with one eighth of the teams qualifying automatically.

On one hand I’d love to see Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland pulling triple co-hosting duties in 2016. The atmosphere would be incredible and there would be plenty of fantastic stadiums to choose from - Hampden Park, Ibrox Stadium, Celtic Park, Millennium Stadium (pictured). But on the other hand I get the feeling that three co-hosts is at least one too many.

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The Homeless World Cup commenced Monday in Melbourne, Australia, opening up a week’s worth of street soccer festivities and good deeds. As is the case with street footy, goals were plentiful, with the only game coming under 7 goals the 3-0 victory of Austria over hosts Australia. So maybe that homefield advantage we see so often in regular tournaments don’t extend to the streets.

However, this is one “World Cup” where the sport is secondary and the peripherals are anything but.

The Homeless World Cup is an annual, international football tournament, uniting teams of people who are homeless and excluded to take a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent their country and change their lives forever. It has triggered and supports grass roots football projects in over 60 nations working with over 25,000 homeless and excluded people throughout the year.

The impact is consistently significant year on year with 73% of players changing their lives for the better by coming off drugs and alcohol, moving into jobs, education, homes, training, reuniting with families and even going on to become players and coaches for pro or semi-pro football teams.

Over 500 players are at the tournament, which means if they keep their current rate 365 people (they have men’s & women’s) will somehow better their lives from this tournament alone. In other words, though it’s just seven days, they will somehow improve one person’s life each day of the year. With one billion homeless in the world today, according to the organization, it’s an incredibly small piece of the pie, but a massive step in the right direction. World Cup may be the best tournament in football, but this is undoubtedly the most meaningful.

And you don’t have to be in Melbourne to help. Just click on the banner to find various ways.

Then check out the short documentary made after last year’s tournament in Copenhagen:

They’re simply not included on EA’s latest blister-inducing footy game. Not under a different spelling (Whales?) or misplaced under the Asian section, but just flat out disappeared. Wales Online has an understandably angry quote from 30 year old Noel Davies, who just bought the game:

“I’m a big fan of John Toshack’s side and I was looking forward to leading the team. I found England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and even New Zealand, but no Wales.

“I don’t know why but maybe the people at Fifa no longer see us as a footballing nation and think we are no longer worthy of a place in the game. There are Premiership players in the Welsh team coveted by the top European clubs. You would only have to have a chat with Arsene Wenger about Aaron Ramsey to agree about that…

…In all seriousness you have to wonder how we are not in the game and yet New Zealand are, who are more famous for Jonah Lomu and rugby.”

“In earlier versions of the game they used to have a Wales team.

“I imagine the market for this game in the UK is huge, so to ignore Wales is ridiculous. There are enough gaming members of the public in Wales. I find it really insulting.”

Bit harsh on New Zealand there (they just successfully hosted the world’s first U-17 Women’s World Cup, where North Korea beat the USA in 2-1 aet in the final) but Davies definitely has a point. Especially the part about alienating Welsh gamers.

And this isn’t the first time Wales has been disappeared. As one commenter on Game Politics pointed out, a European Union stats book accidentally wiped the entire country off the map back in 2004. Almost feels like a conspiracy.

I hope there’s a good reason for this omission, like maybe it was a dispute over licensing or image rights or something. But seems likely that someone at Electronic Arts just forgot that the Welsh national team existed. A bit like Ryan Giggs did when the friendly games rolled around. Ahem.

Even worse (or better, depending on whether you prefer the Welsh national team or irony) EA have included Welshman Tom Jones on the soundtrack and apparently included the Millennium Stadium as one of the locations to play at.

Welsh fans are officially pissed, but you can help cheer them up by signing this petition to have Wales reinstated on FIFA ‘09.

Two interesting tidbits of information, that you might have know but I didn’t until today:

First of all, Copa America hosting decisions are a lot fairer than other tournaments. Apparently it’s all alphabetical. Venezuela 2007 ended the cycle, and Argentina begins it again with Bolivia up next. And if a country isn’t ready to host, they can postpone and claim it later. Nice.

Second, and slightly less sensible, the non-CONMEBOL invitees for Copa America 2011 will be… Mexico and Japan. Yes, that Japan! The one that’s actually quite far away from South America. As Chris says “What’s the point of calling it Copa America? They should just call it “People we like who can’t beat us”.”

Which brings up something that’s possibly been suggested before. Why not expand Copa America to include all CONCACAF teams? The Gold Cup is not a great tournament by any stretch of the imagination, and the 10 CONMEBOL teams always have to invite random teams (like Japan) to make up the numbers. So why not go all out and get everyone involved?

Two ways it could be done:

a) CONMEBOL could invite just the 10 Central American and North American nations for a 20 team tournament (four groups of five?) and leave the Caribbean nations out. Or..

b) the whole of CONCACAF (that’s 40 nations) could have a qualifying tournament to decide who gets to go.

I understand Copa America has a long and proud history, but that doesn’t mean the tournament shouldn’t be updated. An expanded and more inclusive tournament might be even better for all involved.

So, please take our poll and let us know what you think:

Or at least that’s the lesson they seem to hope people will pick up from the suspension of Peru from “all international sporting contact for its clubs, national teams, referees and officials” due to governmental meddling in the Peruvian football association (FPF.)

A good plan. In theory. Football and government are generally a poor mix. But, to play devil’s advocate, what if the football associations aren’t pure? And what if they’re failing to clean themselves up? What happens then?

This looks as if it may be the case in Peru, whose team is currently at the bottom (10th place) of South American CONMEBOL standings for World Cup qualifying. They’ve fallen a long way from their glory days in the seventies, when they were close to a perennial qualifier for World Cups and managed to take home a Copa América trophy.

Things aren’t so great these days. From Sports Illustrated (an excellent read for those interested in the big picture):

The Peruvian state, through its sports institute (IPD), demanded that the FPF bring its statutes in line with local law. When this didn’t happen, it declared FPF president Manuel Burga and some of his team ineligible for a period of five years. Burga ignored the ban. He stood for re-election. It was a controversial process. The election took place a year later than scheduled (was this really an attempt to profit from the good performances of the Peru side in last year’s World Under-17 Cup?). But Burga won. In the eyes of FIFA, he is the legitimate representative of Peruvian soccer.

The IPD sees it differently. It doesn’t recognize Burga nor his team. Restrictions have been imposed on the FPF’s use of bank accounts. And Peru lost the right to stage the South American Under-20 Championships next January. The stadiums belong to the IPD, which wouldn’t cede them for use by the FPF, and so the tournament was recently switched to Venezuela. …

The FPF seemed to be searching for scapegoats when it suspended some senior players for alleged hijinks after celebrating a draw with Brazil. No longer considered for selection are Claudio Pizarro (who still angrily proclaims his innocence) and fellow strikers Jefferson Farfán and Andrés Mendoza, plus senior center back Santiago Acasiete. Peru doesn’t have the strength in depth to be able to leave out such talent, and it certainly appeared the FPF was more interested in playing the blame game than in providing a structure that might help the team. While the other South American sides were involved in warm-up friendlies in August and November, the FPF didn’t organize any games for its own team.

Public opinion is against Burga and the FPF, but there is no way for the public to oust him. And because he is the elected representative, FIFA stands fully behind him. Hence the ban.

FIFA regrets that the Peruvian government sports authorities have not taken up any of the numerous invitations to dialogue that FIFA, CONMEBOL and the FPF have extended in good faith over more than two years in order to reach constructive solutions for Peruvian football.

FIFA wishes to make clear that the FPF will only be allowed to return to the fold of the world and South American football communities on the basis of negotiations with the President and the Board of the FPF who were elected in October 2007.

It seems we have an impasse. The government will not accept the FPF as it is, saying that they’re not complying with the law. And Burga has refused to step down, saying that this will not solve the federation’s problems. And now fans and players are caught in the middle with no obvious way forward.

Tim Vickery at SI (link above) sees one way out: If the clubs make it clear that they have no confidence in Burga, which could force him to resign. Maybe.

It will be interesting to see who blinks first.

It’s an eight team tournament, made up of the six winners of the regional international tournaments (European Championships, Copa America etc) plus the World Cup holders and the World Cup hosts. It’s two groups of four and then top two go to the semis.

The ball (left) has been unveiled, and looks damn good. The draw for the group stage was made over the weekend, and the results were more than a little lopsided:

Group A: South Africa, Spain, Iraq, New Zealand
Group B: USA, Italy, Brazil, Egypt

Think you’ll agree that Spain’s chances of making the semis are pretty good. The upside of all this unfairness is a great looking Group B. Italy and Brazil we know about, but the group stage will be an excellent chance for the USA and Egypt to prove they can hang with the big boys.

If you’re not sure how seriously to take this tournament… it’s pretty much the equivalent of the Club World Cup. There’s a trophy at stake, but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t win it. Because any tournament that starts with only eight teams can only ever be so significant.

For the smaller teams it’s a chance to get some valuable FIFA world ranking points, climb up that table and get a more favourable seeding in future tournament draws. And for the audience it’s at least some half-decent football to fill the gap next summer.

But arguably the most important thing here is the host nation. The real point of the Confederations Cup is - no matter what else FIFA says - to give the World Cup hosts a dry run at staging big games. Which makes this Confederations Cup arguably the most important of all time.

All the questions about whether or not South Africa is ready to host World Cup 2010 will be at least partially answered next June. Fingers crossed.

“We forced the Mexicans to their knees once more,” blared La Prensa in their morning edition, before adding: “Don’t rub your eyes, it really happened. It seems like a dream to us but it isn’t. Wake up, it’s real life.”

“Crawling pitifully into the Hexagonal”, headlined Mediotiempo.com, though the internet portal did not lay the blame on the players or head coach, instead claiming that the result was “a red warning sign highlighting the appalling planning and disproportionate ambition of Mexican football”.

“Kick him out. It only costs $4 million,” said the sports daily Record, referring to a penalty clause in Eriksson’s contract if he is sacked.

“If they want, Record will pay the first dollar.”

“We’ve qualified for the final stage but that’s where the dreams of a country could go down the drain along with millions of dollars and a golden generation,” added the newspaper.

I’d have to argue the golden generation is that of 2014 or 2018, with superstuds Carlos Vela, Giovani Dos Santos and Guillermo Ochoa still far from their primes, but point taken. Looking up the table at Honduras is never going to sit well - especially with last evening’s wound still fresh.

If he isn’t fired, and it seems unlikely that he will be just three months after his debut, he’s got til February to right the ship. But one has to wonder if the tumble that is Sven’s career will continue - this is the third straight gig which has gone a great deal less than wonderfully - as it seems Sven-Goran Eriksson the coach isn’t quite on par with Sven-Goran Eriksson the name anymore.

So you want to promote the Confederations Cup 2009, the “soft opening” for World Cup 2010 in South Africa. A tournament which hasn’t had much, if any, good PR. What do you do? Call in the hot chick cavalry and tell them to jump up and down. (They’re all Miss Something Or Other, currently competing for Miss World.) (Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images)

Brazil vs Portugal was billed as Kaka vs Ronaldo. If that was so, then someone raise Kaka’s arm. Brazil won 6-2 with the Jesus-owned playmaker pulling the strings.

More importantly this was Dunga vs Carlos Queiroz, two embattled coaches who couldn’t really afford a defeat. OK, it was only a friendly, but a 6-2 defeat to a former colony? That doesn’t bode well for Carlos Queiroz.

You can see the Portugal boss getting progressively depressed as the Brazilian goals fly in (the tv footage helfully cuts to him every time his team concede) culminating with a classic head in hands monent.

With Portugal currently third behind Hungary and Denmark in a World Cup 2010 qualifying group they should be winning, Carlos Queiroz will be looking over his shoulder and might want to call Alex Ferguson to see if his old job is still available.

El Diego’s already without key players like Leo Messi, Juan Roman Riquelme and possible future son in law Sergio Aguero (who’s left the squad to be with Maradona’s daughter, who he knocked up a while back). And because drama seems to follow the man wherever he goes, today Maradona is facing an old adversary for the fist time in 22 years. An angry Terry Butcher.

Butcher is assistant manager on the Scotland team, and was playing for England when Maradona scored his famous Hand of God goal at the 1986 World Cup:

And Butcher still seems a bit sore about it.

“It’s very hard to forgive and forget in the circumstances. But it was 22 years ago,” Butcher told the Press Association.

“I think I’m 4-1 to get a red card in the tunnel — it would be the fist of Terry Butcher rather than the hand.

“But, no, it’s gone now and, while we will never forget, it’s not about that game. I haven’t got a Maradona doll that I stick pins in every day, I don’t need psychiatric help,” he added.

Methinks the assistant manager doth protest too much. And let’s hope he’s joking about the “fist of Terry Butcher”.

Maradona responded in his usual diplomatic way:

“I’m not going to seek him out. I don’t know why Butcher has taken this attitude. I don’t quite understand. I will let Butcher get on with his life and I’ll get on with mine.

“I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. If he doesn’t shake my hand, I’ll still be alive tomorrow.”

Scotland vs Argentina kicks off at 8pm local time (3pm US Eastern). Ninety minutes later we’ll hopefully be able to form our first opinions about Maradona the international manager. Any good?

You can follow Argentina fan’s reactions to their new manager on Argentina World Cup Blog.