Not ready for Liverpool (Slot), but ready for the World! 
Another summer of agony…
There is something seriously wrong with the qualifying system or Italy, if Curacao is in and Italy not. I think, big football nations, let’s say finalists since 1966, should be in automatically, based on their history, merits, and importance to make such a tournament great.
Brazil, Argentina
Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Holland, England
Croatia (probably not, but they went to one final)
Exciting qualifiers: the Bosnians, Swedes, and Czechs with close wins.
More ugly than exciting: Turkey vs Kosovo
I do hope every tournament to see the big names there, but automatic qualifications is in my view going against the football world.
All big football countries have their league systems with promotions and demotions, no closed systems where teams are guaranteed a spot based on what they did last season.
It’s also about money, which fans would chose to travel to Albania for a friendly game in October, if they instead can go there at that time for an exciting qualification away game
While I agree that it seems unfair, from a business standpoint it is bollocks to have Bosnia Herzegowina play at the WC instead of Italy.
Especially, if you look at who else is playing. Curacao, Cape Verde, Uzbekistan… Chances that they would have qualified playing Italy are close to zero.
Curaçao played Barbados, Aruba, Saint Lucia, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Bermuda and Jamaica…
Italy, Ireland, Poland, Denmark… maybe even Island and Luxembourg would probably have clinched a berth facing those opponents.
This is more and more a tournament like the Olympics where diversity is more important than actual strength.
This comes back to that countries in Europe and South America have too few spots. compared with how strong the teams are. These two groups should have more spots, and can cut out some tourists teams
More spots for UEFA, but still compete for those spots IMHO
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Problem is, there are too many European nations. I understand that the organizers want to have a diverse field of nations, but I would make sure that teams like Italy take part. Well, you can blame Italy for being bad in three consecutive WC qualifying attempts and I don’t really feel sorry for them, but it cannot be in the interest of the organizer that a team like that is absent.
I was in US for the 1994 World Cup, and lots of talk then was about way too many European countries was included, that the European teams were not better than other regions and it should be more diverse…..
picture below is the quarter finals 
Ugh, that Bulgaria game…
Well, Europe, South America, and Africa + Japan/South Korea dominate football. The rest, Caribbean, Middle East, Central America, Central and South Asia, Oceania, they are just not that good, and should probably focus on cricket, rugby, baseball, and whatever sport they are better at.
Yes, there are sometimes some other teams popping up into the QF, SF, Final. But ordinary it’s either a European or South American team who wins in the end and teams from these two groups dominate the groups Stages
At US$150 the train ride from Manhattan to MetLife is not only expensive, but surely the train stations themselves will be uh colorful. Colorful bordering on gruesome. At least it’s round trip. 
For poker pros Vegas is the place to be during the WSOP. Not so much for the tournament, but for the cash games and the rich fish who are in town to watch and to drink and who then become attracted to the action. Can’t help but think that Penn Station is likely to seem likewise a Mecca for street crime.
Soccer fans who were already facing the most expensive tickets in the history of the World Cup were informed this week that a round-trip train ticket from New York’s Penn Station to MetLife Stadium will cost $150 on NJ Transit. On NFL game days to the New York Jets or Giants, that route costs $12.90.
New York isn’t the only city where transit costs are surging for the World Cup. Boston’s World Cup host committee recently said it would charge $95 for bus service to and from Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., quadruple the usual cost for a trip from the city to the stadium.
FIFA’s use of dynamic ticket pricing for this World Cup has sent the cost of seats to some games soaring well into the thousands of dollars when they are even available. On one resale site Friday, the starting cost for a ticket to the final at MetLife was over $9,000.
Including the price of transportation, that trip could now cost at least $9,150—per person.