bowes said:
Why do Russia have an equally strong claim, the Home Nations put 50 on them easy. Not sure why everyone always overestimates the strength of Russia.
Yes, France have pulled out as it would be stupid for them to play in a qualification tournament when they've been given automatic qualification.
With respect to the home nations, I was thinking particularly about Scotland, although I did not want to point the finger at them, so to speak. However since you ask, here goes.
First off, I want to make clear that I mean no disrespect to the Scottish league, and I fully applaud and appreciate their efforts. However, I do not think that they are as strong domestically, and therefore as deserving (at least to my mind), as the Russians.
Until last season, it is my understanding that Scotland only had about 3 senior clubs in the entire country. In the 2005 season, this number increased to the current 6. However all of these 6 clubs struggled to field full sides in 2005, and a number of games were cancelled as a result (and I am not only referring to the Royal Scots no-show at the recent Challenge Cup preliminary round match).
Three of the 6 teams are, I believe, based around the security forces (Royal Scots Steelers, Moray Eels and the Fife Lions), and as such, security commitments take precidence over football ("sorry laddie ... yurr gunna havta find sumeone else to go to Iraq ... I've gotta rubgy match on"). As a result for example, Fife couldn't field a side when the G8 conference was held over there this year, and the Royal Scots regiment are currently in Iraq and hence cannot field a team.
Of the remaining 3 clubs, I understand that the Easterhouse Panthers had to call off games last year due to lack of player numbers, the Edinburgh Eagles struggled to field a full team at times (on at least one occassion, they could only field 8 players), and Clyde also apparently had problems with player shortages.
On top of this, it is my understanding that at times teams have turned up to play, but the games have been cancelled because of the lack of match officials (for insurance pruposes, I understand that the games cannot go ahead without qualified referees).
I will grant you that it is very difficult to know for sure what is happening on the ground in Scotland, and even harder to know what is going on in Russia, given that I live on a league-free island state on the opposite side of the globe. However, the impression that I get is that the Russians, although not without their problems, are considerably stronger in terms of their domestic game.
Scotland however has been fantastic in terms of providing touring sides, particularly to developing nations, and their efforts in this regard cannot be too highly commended. Perhaps it is this that got them their automatic ENC qualification (if so, I suppose that is reasonable).
Their greatest strength (and that of Wales and Ireland) in terms of representative football is that heaps of people have migrated from there to places where league (and union) is popular. As a result, they have a substantial base of players who qualify to wear their jumper, even though they never played in their domestic comp. Russia on the other hand, does not have this history of high levels of emmigration to league-playing nations, and so lacks the "external" player base. I don't think however, that this should be sufficient reason to see them punted from the ENC, while Scotland gets automatic entry
I suppose the benefit to Russia of this kind of set up, is that they will undoubtedly qualify for the ENC, and will get a few games under their belts whilst doing so.
As to the French involvement in the ENC, my understanding is that the ENC
IS the WC qualifying tournament. The ENC is a competition with some history (dating back beyond its relatively recent revival), and was developing a degree of prestige and tradition in its own right. If France pull out (or are pushed out) because they don't "need" to qualify, then the tournament is nothing more than a WC qualifier. To me, that would be a pity. If the WC becomes a regular event say every 4 years, then that means that for 2 out of every 4 years, the competition would have little meaning. There is also the issue that I rasied earlier of France (and PNG) needing meaningful international competition, and plenty of it, prior to the WC. If they don't play the ENC, aren't in the tri-nations until 2009, and there are no european tours by Aust or NZ until after the world cup, then who are they going to play (... in a reinstated Med Cup perhaps???)
. James Vukumirovic is Serbian origin and he is Serbian who lives in UK and he is SRL connection man in UK.
