Minnows have made the World Cup a mess

THE thought first entered my head last weekend when I was asked to give out a scoreline during commentary. It was the Asia/Oceania play-off, first leg: Bahrain 0 New Zealand 0.

What? One of those two mighty football nations was nearing a place in the World Cup finals? How utterly ridiculous.

And then, in the build up to Wednesday’s final group games in Europe and South America, I finally paid attention to just who would be going to South Africa next summer, who would be sweating on a play-off and who would miss out altogether. It didn’t take me long to decide that FIFA’s qualification process is a mess.