Watch Out World, Here Come North Korea

Watch out world, the totally justified qualification of Australia for next years Word Cup in South Africa has been followed by another footballing powerhouse, the People's Republic of North Korea securing their place at the tournament. It's good to see the big nations book their tickets early on while the minnows of Europe battle it out for a few months yet. Australia and North Korea will need plenty of time to rest up as they prepare of the long tournament which awaits them.

It won't be easy but I'm sure at least one of them will manage to spoil their way through to the second or possibly even a quarter final. I really can't wait to see North Korea battle their way to their third successive valiant but utterly boring 0-0 having stretched the rules of the game to breaking point in a bid to keep the game scoreless. The North Korean's secured qualification with a hard earned 0-0 against Saudi Arabia.

The presence of so many poor teams in the World Cup really diminishes it overall. The European Championship is a much more exciting and difficult competition. Every game is like a final in itself. The group stages of the World Cup has about as much bite as a diplomatic gathering of the United Nations. Teams like North Korea, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago et al should have to earn the right to play in the World Cup in the very same ways as teams from Europe are tested so vigorously before being deemed worthy to qualify.

In Ireland's case, even finishing 2nd in a group with Italy, Bulgaria Montenegro, Georgia and Cyprus only qualifies them for a 2 leg playoff against another European team. I can assure you that qualification means a lot more per capita to Irish people than to Australians who qualified with two games to go or the North Koreans for whom a draw against the Saudi's was as tough as it got.

If FIFA were able to stretch the limits of their imaginations to include Israel, Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are part of Europe then I'm sure they can come up with a more equitable process of qualification for the World Cup. Since the fall of the Soviet Union there are now far more countries in Europe and it is also the case that more and more nations from other parts of the world are becoming more competitive yet the qualification process has remained unchanged. Travel has become much easier and there are now foreign players playing in leagues all over the world.

World football has changed dramatically and continues to evolve but FIFA have not kept up except by giving free tickets to the World Cup to countries who have everything to prove while the rest of us soldier on through groups of death in the hope of maybe getting into a playoff.