Matt
Years ago
FIBA qualifying review opinion
After watching the FIFA soccer world cup, which in my view has been anything but a true "world title" more an exhibition tournament as so many top class teams are not there eg Italy/Chile(consecutive copa american champs) and so many more.. No one on planet earth can say Panama/Saudi's/Tunisia/Nigeria/South Korea and so many more are better than say italy/dutch/chile and others etc..
I'd like to say global world groups not confederations for qualifying tournaments in soccer and I'm now thinking the same thing in basketball. And yes stuff about continent spots this is a true world title i want in basketball so it should be based on merit, so lets drop the too many teams from europe crap. If Afro basket does;t have the ambition or resources too match europe in the short term bad luck, it's the basketball world cup not an invitational friendly tournament..
So like soccer i think basketball should switch to qualifiers based on FIBA rankings, then once that's done the top 32 teams from qualifying go through, out of 215 member federations I believe..
For the early rounds you could maybe have a few teams in continental play offs before entering the world group qualifiers..
But yes like in soccer, i see the same thing happening in basketball that many of the top 24 nations won't be at the ball world cup.. Olympics grates me no end the 12-team comp and IOC inflexibility to move to 16 teams despite FIBA's pleas, as many good and superior teams miss out.. I think Olympics should be now an under-23's tournament but thats a debate for another day... But yep i think FIBA should scrap continent qualifying and organize into world groups and put into pots based on seeds, and go from there. And early rounds the weaker teams will have initial qualifying to make the next round of qualifiers, so don't worry Samoa won't have to face team USA in the first round of qualifying..
But no it doesn't sit well with me if some of the good european sides miss out on the basketball world cup and some weaker afro basket and asian sides qualify.. I want a true world championship based on merit not so-called world title based on fairness by giving everyone a gold star that's not how a true world cup style should work... Many critics of soccer world cup in social media about some of the thrashings and teams like italy not there, and many fans are saying the continent qualifying style should be scrapped, same applies to basketball. And yes I have a problem if say Japan qualify and Russia or Greece don't make the basketball world cup, correct.. I wanna see a true world title. And having world groups for qualifying not continents insures more fairness..
Discuss!
