james dean wrote:
My dad is a die hard aussie football fan so I was brought up supporting the socceroos (even if now I have mixed feelings about the team they have). How much better is their qualifying pathway - even if they don't make it they have had about 6 games in a row which are meaningful and important, but also winnable. We have the BS against the Island teams where we all pretend to get excited and worried and then play South America where we probably have less than 5% chance of advancing. Even if they don't get to the World CUp they have had 4 years of interesting matches for their national team
We would most likely be knocked out in the 2nd round of most/a lot of qualification campaigns (which finished March last year) and not guaranteed qualification for the Asian cup - we would have less meaningful matches than Australia but more than currently. I wonder the cost vs. the potential for better income (attendance and sponsorship) when we play games in the Middle East and Central Asia and host teams like Bhutan or Guam. Our women teams probably, apart from cost, benefit more with them being more competitive than their mail counterparts. It does jeopardise/stop our attendance in age group WCs, Confed Cup, WC and club world cup. I'm on the fence.