208 to 1. The Countdown to the 2014 World Cup.
Posted: 15 Mar 2012, 18:39
Using near duplicate posts from the forum of Non League matters http://nonleaguematters.co.uk/forum/gforum.cgi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;?
I am trying to bring back the lost World Cup thread. I will do this in a series of posts. Comments are by me, unless I give the username (on nonleague matters) of additional interesting comments
June 1 2011
With all the fuss over the President, FIFA seem to have forgotten that there is a World Cup in just three years time. The main qualification draw is due on 30th July, but some teams will not make it that far.
Four countries are not entered at present. The number could change before the draw.
The four are Brunei (suspended at the time of the AFC's preliminary draw, and so excluded)
plus Bhutan, Guam and Mauritania - assumedly for their own reasons
Yesterday, FIFA decided to end suspensions of Brunei and Bosnia - this is too late for Brunei to take part in the 2014 World Cup, but allows Bosnia to play their Euro qualifier in Romania on Friday. The Indonesian question has been deferred to 31 July, by which time they will probably have been knocked out of the World Cup!!
The first qualifying games are very soon, but FIFA's own website only gives the draws, and none of the fixtures. According to Wikipedia, the opening game will be Anguilla v Dominican Republic on Friday, followed by Saint Lucia v Aruba on Sunday. The return legs are on Tuesday and Thursday respectively.
Three more CONCACAF qualifyers take place in early July (Wikipedia schedule)
Asia has eight qualifying games, with the first legs scheduled for 29 June and returns on 3 July, and a further series (including Turkmenistan v indonesia) at the end of the month
June 2 2011
With FIFA deciding the opening games in the 2014 World Cup are not worthy of their own web site, it has been difficult to confirm the opening fixtures. This was not helped by our friends at Wikipedia and Soccerway showing different dates, (neither were correct).
I made another mistake (which was me) in the earlier post. Indonesia must sort out its election by the end of June in order to avoid suspension, so they could miss out on the World Cup.
Anyway, the opening game in the 2014 World Cup is in fact this Saturday, 11 pm our time (6 pm local) when St. Lucia take on Aruba. The return match in on 8th June (same kick off time), when one of the pair will have the "honour" of becoming the first side to get knocked out of the 2014 World Cup. That will leave 203 teams in competition, so a further 171 need to be knocked out before the finals can commence.
June 6 2011
Even if we are to blame CONCACAF, rather than FIFA, it is farcical.
The St Lucia v Aruba game was not played this weekend. CONCACAF and Soccerway both have the match down as cancelled, with the second leg still too to be played in midweek.
Wikipedia has it down for next month, meaning the opening World Cup game will be Montserrat v Belize (in Trinidad & Tobago), on 15 June.
June 15 2011
The World Cup should start tonight with the Montserrat v Belize game in Trinidad.
However, the Government of Belize says that any side put out by the Football Federation of Belize cannot represent the nation. FIFA may suspend Belize from International football from July 1.
http://www.soccerway.com/...world-cup-qualifier/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The problem appears similar to the one that earned the Brunei FA a ban that lasted around 18 months, and was lifted too late to allow Brunei to play in the 2014 World Cup
June 16 2011
Montserrat 2-5 Belize played at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Trinidad - reported crowd of 150
Addition remark, by Andy E. Chatham
The manager of Montserrat is Kenny Dyer, who played for Chatham Town and quite a lot of other Isthmian League clubs. Apparently one of the team plays for Cockfosters in the Spartan South Midlands League!
Junior Mendes played two games for Montserrat (wiki). He was at Ayr 2009-10 season, but soccerbase does not record him as playing in 2010-11. Born in South London, he has been on the books of Chelsea, St Mirren, Carlisle, Dunfermline, Mansfield, Huddersfield, Northampton, Grimsby, Notts County, Lincoln, Aldershot, Stevenage and Ilkeston.
June 21 2012 – from http://www.leohoenig.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Not surprisingly, Montserrat were beaten in the game, losing 5-2 to Belize. Belize are ranked 172 in the World. With the bottom ten of CONCACAF’s 35 members in this knock out qualifying round, Belize are the only non-Caribbean side at this stage. Deon McCauley, who at the age of 23 has already played football in Costa Rica and Honduras, as well as his native Belize had the honour of scoring the first goal of the 2014 World Cup. He went on to complete a hat-trick.
This is not the end of the story. There should have been a second leg match in Belize four days after the opening game, after which Montserrat could be named as the first side knocked out of the 2014 World Cup, but a combination of the government of Belize and FIFA intervened.
Even before the match, the government of Belize had stated that the Football Federation of Belize (FFB) were not a properly registered association and could not officially represent the country. This dates back to the last election for the FFB executive and president in December. After the election, the government set up an “independent” Sports Investigation Committee. The sports minister has been quoting from an as yet unpublished report, which apparently says that by refusing to accept nominations from one of its members (the Belize Premier Football League, the country’s leading league),the FBB had broken its own rules. With the alternative candidate banned, the incumbent, Bertie Chimilio had a free run, but anyway he also handpicked the district representatives who were responsible for voting him back in.
A standoff between the government and the FFB appears to have been going on throughout the year, and FIFA who are notorious unfriendly to governments who interfere in footballing affairs,( with the obvious exceptions of dictators like Gaddafi), gave Belize a deadline before its recent congress, to sort out the situation by the end of the month of June. This deadline would, of course have allowed the two qualifying matches to take place, and give Belize a short window to sort the situation out before the next international match.
It was the government of Belize which took the step that brought proceedings to a halt. They wrote to FIFA in the week before the Montserrat match to state that the FBB did not have the right to represent the nation, and could not fly the Belize flag or play the Belize National Anthem at the match. These symbols are considered to be important, when in the qualifying rounds for the 2010 World Cup, North Korea refused to allow the South Korean flag or National Anthem to be used at matches between the two Koreas in their part of the peninsular – the matches were switched to neutral China. The North Koreans did play in South Korea as scheduled.
Anyway, the match in Trinidad last week went ahead, even without the sanction of the Belize government, but faced with a letter saying that the Belize government would not provide police or security for the match, FIFA finally intervened and suspended Belize from World Football on Friday. Citing Government interference, FIFA have said that any action taking by the government against the office bearers of the FFB would not be recognised.
Meanwhile, a new association has been formed in Belize, the National Football Association of Belize, and on Saturday it elected its first President. Representatives of all the district associations in Belize were present, along with those from the Belize Premier League and the Super League of Belize. With the exception of the Super League, these are the same groupings as would have voted for the FFB president, (not necessarily the same representatives of those associations). The vote was won by Michael Blease, but no list of alternative candidates has been mentioned.
The Super League appears to be a rival league to the Premier League, but not registered with the FFB. This appears to have been the case for some time, although the FFB have not been taking normal action against an unaffiliated league, as McCauley, the hat trick hero from the opening game is a player with Super League champions, City Boys United. One would normally expect a player with an unaffiliated league to be excluded from international participation.
FIFA have given Belize only until 10th July to sort out the situation and play the match. It seems this is not good news for Belize, as neither party is close to giving ground. A similar situation involving Brunei was only recently resolvedafter 18 months of suspension from FIFA. In the end, the newly formed National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam was allowed to take over, (which means that FIFA did give in to the local government), although I understand that FIFA are pretending otherwise.
Assuming Belize are suspended, they may not get any thanks from Montserrat if the island gets a bye into the group stage. While it is great for even a small nation to be involved in the World Cup in a small way, it would be a mistake to say they want to go beyond the first match. The top six CONCACAF nations are exempt from the first group stage, so if they get through, Montserrat will have to bear the expense of a six match group with little income from their home games (the game last week had a crowd shown as 100 by FIFA). FIFA have plenty of money to spread about, but they do not use it to support teams in playing their qualification games.
June 29 2011
Asian Qualifying started today.
Cambodia 4-2 Laos
Nepal 2-1 Timor-Leste
Afghanistan 0-2 Palestine (played in Tajikistan)
Sri Lanka 1-1 Philippines
Bangladesh 3-0 Pakistan
Mongolia 1-0 Myanmar
Vietnam 6-0 Macau
Malaysia 2-1 Chinese Taipei
The first of the second legs (if you see what I mean) is on Saturday, Timor-Leste staying to play again in Kathmandu
The others on Sunday
June 30 2011
As of yesterday, the South Pacific games is not part of the qualifying process - see
http://www.oceaniafootball.com/...e/en-US/Default.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The OFC Tournament in June next year is not likely to be in New Zealand, due to a continuing ban on Fiji Military personel from entering NZ. The last time the pair were due to meet in NZ, the match was postponed, and then played later and elsewhere.
Fiji's team for the 2011 Rugby World Cup is likely to be weakened by the ban
July 2 2011
FIFA has 208 members eligible for the World Cup 2014
208. Brunei - not entered due to FIFA suspension at the time of Asia Preliminary Draw
207. Bhutan - declined to enter
206. Guam - declined to enter
205. Mauritania - declined to enter
204. July 2 2011. Timor Leste (aka East Timor) - beaten by Nepal 2-1, 5-0 in two legged qualifiers. Both matches played in Kathmandu
July 3 2011 – comment by “East Fork United – USA”
Turks & Caicos are squarely behind the 8-ball now. Bahamas blistered TCI with a 4-0 win in Providenciales Saturday. The return match is next week.
One of the starters for the Bahamas was Anton Sealey Jr. His dad was the initial whistle-blower that led to the CONCACAF scandal that ousted Jack Warner as President of the confederation.
July 3 2011
Hopefully in the correct time order, but anyway all those knocked out on July 3.
203. Sri Lanka, losing 4-0 in the Philippines after a 1-1 home draw
202. Mongolia, whose 1-0 home win was overturned with a 2-0 defeat by Myanmar
201. Macau - lost 6-0 in Vietnam, and fared no better with a 7-1 home defeat
200. Chinese Taipei (Taiwan). Beat Malaysia 3-2, but went out on away goals. Malaysia had led 1-0 and 2-1
199. Cambodia. Had beaten neighbours Laos 4-2, but suffered in extra time after being 4-2 down at 90. Final score 6-2
198. Afghanistan. Got a 1-1 draw in Palestine, (first World Cup match played there?), but had lost 2-0 in the "home" leg, actually played in Tajikistan
197. Pakistan. Made no inroads the deficit from a 3-0 defeat in Bangladesh. Final score 0-0.
196 teams now survive. More next week!
July 4 2011 – From Evil Bill (Marske)
Apparently that was indeed Palestine's first World Cup game on home soil.
The US Virgin Islands beat the British Virgin Islands 2-0 last night in their first leg. I found out the other day that the manager of the British Virgin Islands when they made their World Cup debut in 2000 was a certain Andre Villas-Boas. They lost 14-1 on aggregate to Bermuda.
I am trying to bring back the lost World Cup thread. I will do this in a series of posts. Comments are by me, unless I give the username (on nonleague matters) of additional interesting comments
June 1 2011
With all the fuss over the President, FIFA seem to have forgotten that there is a World Cup in just three years time. The main qualification draw is due on 30th July, but some teams will not make it that far.
Four countries are not entered at present. The number could change before the draw.
The four are Brunei (suspended at the time of the AFC's preliminary draw, and so excluded)
plus Bhutan, Guam and Mauritania - assumedly for their own reasons
Yesterday, FIFA decided to end suspensions of Brunei and Bosnia - this is too late for Brunei to take part in the 2014 World Cup, but allows Bosnia to play their Euro qualifier in Romania on Friday. The Indonesian question has been deferred to 31 July, by which time they will probably have been knocked out of the World Cup!!
The first qualifying games are very soon, but FIFA's own website only gives the draws, and none of the fixtures. According to Wikipedia, the opening game will be Anguilla v Dominican Republic on Friday, followed by Saint Lucia v Aruba on Sunday. The return legs are on Tuesday and Thursday respectively.
Three more CONCACAF qualifyers take place in early July (Wikipedia schedule)
Asia has eight qualifying games, with the first legs scheduled for 29 June and returns on 3 July, and a further series (including Turkmenistan v indonesia) at the end of the month
June 2 2011
With FIFA deciding the opening games in the 2014 World Cup are not worthy of their own web site, it has been difficult to confirm the opening fixtures. This was not helped by our friends at Wikipedia and Soccerway showing different dates, (neither were correct).
I made another mistake (which was me) in the earlier post. Indonesia must sort out its election by the end of June in order to avoid suspension, so they could miss out on the World Cup.
Anyway, the opening game in the 2014 World Cup is in fact this Saturday, 11 pm our time (6 pm local) when St. Lucia take on Aruba. The return match in on 8th June (same kick off time), when one of the pair will have the "honour" of becoming the first side to get knocked out of the 2014 World Cup. That will leave 203 teams in competition, so a further 171 need to be knocked out before the finals can commence.
June 6 2011
Even if we are to blame CONCACAF, rather than FIFA, it is farcical.
The St Lucia v Aruba game was not played this weekend. CONCACAF and Soccerway both have the match down as cancelled, with the second leg still too to be played in midweek.
Wikipedia has it down for next month, meaning the opening World Cup game will be Montserrat v Belize (in Trinidad & Tobago), on 15 June.
June 15 2011
The World Cup should start tonight with the Montserrat v Belize game in Trinidad.
However, the Government of Belize says that any side put out by the Football Federation of Belize cannot represent the nation. FIFA may suspend Belize from International football from July 1.
http://www.soccerway.com/...world-cup-qualifier/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The problem appears similar to the one that earned the Brunei FA a ban that lasted around 18 months, and was lifted too late to allow Brunei to play in the 2014 World Cup
June 16 2011
Montserrat 2-5 Belize played at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Trinidad - reported crowd of 150
Addition remark, by Andy E. Chatham
The manager of Montserrat is Kenny Dyer, who played for Chatham Town and quite a lot of other Isthmian League clubs. Apparently one of the team plays for Cockfosters in the Spartan South Midlands League!
Junior Mendes played two games for Montserrat (wiki). He was at Ayr 2009-10 season, but soccerbase does not record him as playing in 2010-11. Born in South London, he has been on the books of Chelsea, St Mirren, Carlisle, Dunfermline, Mansfield, Huddersfield, Northampton, Grimsby, Notts County, Lincoln, Aldershot, Stevenage and Ilkeston.
June 21 2012 – from http://www.leohoenig.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Not surprisingly, Montserrat were beaten in the game, losing 5-2 to Belize. Belize are ranked 172 in the World. With the bottom ten of CONCACAF’s 35 members in this knock out qualifying round, Belize are the only non-Caribbean side at this stage. Deon McCauley, who at the age of 23 has already played football in Costa Rica and Honduras, as well as his native Belize had the honour of scoring the first goal of the 2014 World Cup. He went on to complete a hat-trick.
This is not the end of the story. There should have been a second leg match in Belize four days after the opening game, after which Montserrat could be named as the first side knocked out of the 2014 World Cup, but a combination of the government of Belize and FIFA intervened.
Even before the match, the government of Belize had stated that the Football Federation of Belize (FFB) were not a properly registered association and could not officially represent the country. This dates back to the last election for the FFB executive and president in December. After the election, the government set up an “independent” Sports Investigation Committee. The sports minister has been quoting from an as yet unpublished report, which apparently says that by refusing to accept nominations from one of its members (the Belize Premier Football League, the country’s leading league),the FBB had broken its own rules. With the alternative candidate banned, the incumbent, Bertie Chimilio had a free run, but anyway he also handpicked the district representatives who were responsible for voting him back in.
A standoff between the government and the FFB appears to have been going on throughout the year, and FIFA who are notorious unfriendly to governments who interfere in footballing affairs,( with the obvious exceptions of dictators like Gaddafi), gave Belize a deadline before its recent congress, to sort out the situation by the end of the month of June. This deadline would, of course have allowed the two qualifying matches to take place, and give Belize a short window to sort the situation out before the next international match.
It was the government of Belize which took the step that brought proceedings to a halt. They wrote to FIFA in the week before the Montserrat match to state that the FBB did not have the right to represent the nation, and could not fly the Belize flag or play the Belize National Anthem at the match. These symbols are considered to be important, when in the qualifying rounds for the 2010 World Cup, North Korea refused to allow the South Korean flag or National Anthem to be used at matches between the two Koreas in their part of the peninsular – the matches were switched to neutral China. The North Koreans did play in South Korea as scheduled.
Anyway, the match in Trinidad last week went ahead, even without the sanction of the Belize government, but faced with a letter saying that the Belize government would not provide police or security for the match, FIFA finally intervened and suspended Belize from World Football on Friday. Citing Government interference, FIFA have said that any action taking by the government against the office bearers of the FFB would not be recognised.
Meanwhile, a new association has been formed in Belize, the National Football Association of Belize, and on Saturday it elected its first President. Representatives of all the district associations in Belize were present, along with those from the Belize Premier League and the Super League of Belize. With the exception of the Super League, these are the same groupings as would have voted for the FFB president, (not necessarily the same representatives of those associations). The vote was won by Michael Blease, but no list of alternative candidates has been mentioned.
The Super League appears to be a rival league to the Premier League, but not registered with the FFB. This appears to have been the case for some time, although the FFB have not been taking normal action against an unaffiliated league, as McCauley, the hat trick hero from the opening game is a player with Super League champions, City Boys United. One would normally expect a player with an unaffiliated league to be excluded from international participation.
FIFA have given Belize only until 10th July to sort out the situation and play the match. It seems this is not good news for Belize, as neither party is close to giving ground. A similar situation involving Brunei was only recently resolvedafter 18 months of suspension from FIFA. In the end, the newly formed National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam was allowed to take over, (which means that FIFA did give in to the local government), although I understand that FIFA are pretending otherwise.
Assuming Belize are suspended, they may not get any thanks from Montserrat if the island gets a bye into the group stage. While it is great for even a small nation to be involved in the World Cup in a small way, it would be a mistake to say they want to go beyond the first match. The top six CONCACAF nations are exempt from the first group stage, so if they get through, Montserrat will have to bear the expense of a six match group with little income from their home games (the game last week had a crowd shown as 100 by FIFA). FIFA have plenty of money to spread about, but they do not use it to support teams in playing their qualification games.
June 29 2011
Asian Qualifying started today.
Cambodia 4-2 Laos
Nepal 2-1 Timor-Leste
Afghanistan 0-2 Palestine (played in Tajikistan)
Sri Lanka 1-1 Philippines
Bangladesh 3-0 Pakistan
Mongolia 1-0 Myanmar
Vietnam 6-0 Macau
Malaysia 2-1 Chinese Taipei
The first of the second legs (if you see what I mean) is on Saturday, Timor-Leste staying to play again in Kathmandu
The others on Sunday
June 30 2011
As of yesterday, the South Pacific games is not part of the qualifying process - see
http://www.oceaniafootball.com/...e/en-US/Default.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The OFC Tournament in June next year is not likely to be in New Zealand, due to a continuing ban on Fiji Military personel from entering NZ. The last time the pair were due to meet in NZ, the match was postponed, and then played later and elsewhere.
Fiji's team for the 2011 Rugby World Cup is likely to be weakened by the ban
July 2 2011
FIFA has 208 members eligible for the World Cup 2014
208. Brunei - not entered due to FIFA suspension at the time of Asia Preliminary Draw
207. Bhutan - declined to enter
206. Guam - declined to enter
205. Mauritania - declined to enter
204. July 2 2011. Timor Leste (aka East Timor) - beaten by Nepal 2-1, 5-0 in two legged qualifiers. Both matches played in Kathmandu
July 3 2011 – comment by “East Fork United – USA”
Turks & Caicos are squarely behind the 8-ball now. Bahamas blistered TCI with a 4-0 win in Providenciales Saturday. The return match is next week.
One of the starters for the Bahamas was Anton Sealey Jr. His dad was the initial whistle-blower that led to the CONCACAF scandal that ousted Jack Warner as President of the confederation.
July 3 2011
Hopefully in the correct time order, but anyway all those knocked out on July 3.
203. Sri Lanka, losing 4-0 in the Philippines after a 1-1 home draw
202. Mongolia, whose 1-0 home win was overturned with a 2-0 defeat by Myanmar
201. Macau - lost 6-0 in Vietnam, and fared no better with a 7-1 home defeat
200. Chinese Taipei (Taiwan). Beat Malaysia 3-2, but went out on away goals. Malaysia had led 1-0 and 2-1
199. Cambodia. Had beaten neighbours Laos 4-2, but suffered in extra time after being 4-2 down at 90. Final score 6-2
198. Afghanistan. Got a 1-1 draw in Palestine, (first World Cup match played there?), but had lost 2-0 in the "home" leg, actually played in Tajikistan
197. Pakistan. Made no inroads the deficit from a 3-0 defeat in Bangladesh. Final score 0-0.
196 teams now survive. More next week!
July 4 2011 – From Evil Bill (Marske)
Apparently that was indeed Palestine's first World Cup game on home soil.
The US Virgin Islands beat the British Virgin Islands 2-0 last night in their first leg. I found out the other day that the manager of the British Virgin Islands when they made their World Cup debut in 2000 was a certain Andre Villas-Boas. They lost 14-1 on aggregate to Bermuda.