There are teams in Europe that will almost never make it to any tournament…all they do is make the numbers and thus increase the number of games competitive countries have to play.
In Asia and Africa, they already have different stages of qualification, although it’s a different setup to what I think Europe needs.
My take is the countries with the lowest FIFA ratings should play a two-legged knockout fixture (or a one-off could be a better idea) and then proceed to the main qualifying round.
What’s your take on that?
Where are you from? What teams like Switzerland, Sweden and Austria “do” is playing for their fans in the biggest stage representing their nation, and doing well at that.
As you highlighted this teams, Switzerland in the last euros didn’t lose to any semi-decent team in the round of 16. They eliminated the world champions France and then proceeded to take Spain to penalties.
Probably made a lot of people happy.