RichM I don’t get why they don’t change tbe format so that for qualifying there is an initial round of all the shit teams and then a qualifying round of max 4 teams per group for Europe. Perhaps even do like the CL and not have home and away games to reduce no of games played. At the end of the day all the big nations qualify, so it’s a semi pointless exercise before the main event. But by reducing no of qualifying games makes those games more valuable and important to win.
I’d do all qualifying as a mini tournament, tight fixtures, full squads needed, no extra time straight to pens: I could actually pay attention and get mentally involved in a short tournament and maybe give a shit about the outcome. I find it almost impossible to engage with the current format.
