England v Andorra and Poland

[MagyarMiller]

They once beat England 6-3 at Wembley

Back in the day when England had a good team

It sometimes gets overlooked , they won 7-1 in Budapest the following year too.
The 6-3 was the first time England had been beaten by a continental side I think.

Obviously, this is a very long time ago, not too far off the 70th anniversary.

To a degree gru has a point, certainly up until the 2016 Euros they'd not even qualified for a tournament in something like 30 years, a far cry from that Golden Team of the 50's.
I think they're much further forward than such as San Marino, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar etc as being an established football nation, and so definitely deserve their chance to try.

I sort of agree there is a lot of makeweight sides in qualifying, particularly with World Cup qualifiers, I suppose that's got a lot to do with FIFA's desire to expand football more globally.

Somebody mentioned maybe having something like a pre- qualifying group for these sides, so they don't get battered every week and the better teams progress on the back of a few wins. That wouldn't be a bad idea.

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

It sometimes gets overlooked , they won 7-1 in Budapest the following year too.
The 6-3 was the first time England had been beaten by a continental side I think.

Obviously, this is a very long time ago, not too far off the 70th anniversary.

To a degree gru has a point, certainly up until the 2016 Euros they'd not even qualified for a tournament in something like 30 years, a far cry from that Golden Team of the 50's.
I think they're much further forward than such as San Marino, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar etc as being an established football nation, and so definitely deserve their chance to try.

I sort of agree there is a lot of makeweight sides in qualifying, particularly with World Cup qualifiers, I suppose that's got a lot to do with FIFA's desire to expand football more globally.

Somebody mentioned maybe having something like a pre- qualifying group for these sides, so they don't get battered every week and the better teams progress on the back of a few wins. That wouldn't be a bad idea.

Yes good points but really the good old elephant is still in the room. The idea that club football and world football needs elite leagues whether that be euro super league or eliminating inferior teams in earlier rounds of the World Cup.

We nearly took that step just year but effectively it's not really gone away, just postponed.

[flourbasher]

Yes good points but really the good old elephant is still in the room. The idea that club football and world football needs elite leagues whether that be euro super league or eliminating inferior teams in earlier rounds of the World Cup.

We nearly took that step just year but effectively it's not really gone away, just postponed.

Yes I think you will be proven right

UEFA and the Prem league got upset because it was a proposed breakaway whereby they lost power and therefore money

If they can broker a breakaway deal whereby they retain control (and most importantly money) then, as you say, it's only a matter of time

So it wasn't the principle of a breakaway they didn't like, just the fact that the bank balances would take a huge hit