Bilo

I'm at the point where I see @Union FS as a more legitimate voice of the fans than the Foxes Trust, so anything to give the latter a much-needed kick up the arse can only be welcomed.

I'm in two minds about this. On the one hand, UEFA is an outlier in not having preliminary qualifiers to weed out the whipping boys. Somalia and the Seychelles, for example, do not end up in qualifying groups with Morocco and Senegal because they've already been eliminated in earlier rounds. It's also quite clear that the argument that micronations will get better at football if they're regularly playing against world class nations has no bearing given they have shipped double figures to England, Norway, Croatia, Germany, Poland and Belgium. Gibraltar lost 14-0 to France not all that long ago as well. This being said, their players have the right to represent their country and the moneyspinning games against the major nations keeps their national team extant. It can be invested in grassroots football so there is at least football being played on an organised level in places like Andorra, San Marino and Gibraltar. It's unlikely that a team from one of these nations will ever appear in a major tournament and equally unlikely that they'll turn up in the group stages of the Champions League, but their club teams are getting closer in the Conference League with Andorran and Gibraltarian teams in the playoffs this season, and only 180 minutes away from playing at least six games against the likes of Chelsea and Fiorentina.

You're cherrypicking. San Marino may have kept Denmark down to 2-1, a scoreline considered embarrassing by Danish fans and a very poor performance, but they also recently lost 6-0 to Estonia. Plus, as said, they have won 1 game in 16 since the Nations League was set up against Belarus, Luxembourg, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar and Malta. The highest ranked team in the current League D setup is Moldova at 152nd in the world, below teams like Afghanistan, Antigua and Turkmenistan. That's the best team in that level of the Nations League. Gibraltar, who recently beat San Marino and are above them in the world rankings, are below Pakistan, East Timor and Bangladesh.

The FIFA rankings system is pretty complex, but a team is not going to be ranked 80 places higher simply because they play crap opposition. They regularly hold their own against the likes of Australia and Qatar, both of whom have recently won the Asian Cup. They tend to lose by a couple of goals even against decent opposition. Contrast this with the fact that San Marino play similarly weak sides in the Nations League and have a record of W1 D2 L13 against Belarus, Luxembourg, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar and Malta.

India are competitive against teams who are better than those who routinely beat San Marino. They're also 75 places above them in the world rankings, and the quality of teams both sides play is taken into account when calculating their points total. A 1-0 win against Liechtenstein or Gibraltar does not give the same boost that a 1-0 win against Spain or France does. It's weird that you're so angry about the possibility that San Marino's world ranking isn't an accident and they are in fact a very poor side.

It isn't my fault you don't have an argument, bud. A 10-0-0 formation against a decent Championship side, which Denmark would be in my analogy, and it's not out of the question that they keep the score down. Such results are the exception as they usually ship at least five against decent sides, but you knew that.

I think of the FIFA rankings as analogous to the English football pyramid. If we say Argentina are Manchester City at Number 1, with us currently on par with Switzerland in 15th, then India at 124th are broadly equivalent to a National League North side trying for promotion to the National League. If that NLN side plays anyone in the top two divisions, that is to say the top 44 going down to Slovakia, they will pretty much always lose but would give a pretty decent account of themselves. With San Marino being seventy odd places below even that, you're getting into very regional or even county leagues. The kinds of results that San Marino get against the top 20 are pretty similar to those you'd expect Friar Lane and Epworth to get against a Premier League team.

I also suspect St Lucia and the Seychelles would pull similar results to San Marino against top European sides in competitive fixtures. India are somewhere between Estonia and Cyprus in the world rankings, and I suspect they'd perform similarly. Nowhere near the conversation for qualification, but they wouldn't be utterly humiliated.

People said the same about St Kitts & Nevis when they organised two friendlies against San Marino in Serravalle. "San Marino will get a result this time." "St. Kitts only ever play against island nations, so they're overrated by FIFA." The scores of the two friendlies were 3-1 to St Kitts and a 0-0 draw across four days. India are a good twenty-odd places above St Kitts in the world rankings and regularly play teams like Japan, South Korea and Iran. They would bag a very comfortable win.

There was a great mini documentary about it. It honestly isn't for lack of interest and they even tried an Indian Super League, but it hasn't helped. https://youtu.be/gqwRUiQh9V0?si=RwcDnSVFDJeSdzm0

I love how you're trying to be condescending when you were so spectacularly wrong. Peak Dunning-Kruger. 😂

In fairness, Communism doesn't have the most ethical history either.

It's two billion views now. This is the equivalent to 25% of every man, woman and child on the planet having seen a tweet about a moody betting company sponsoring us. 😂 We are so dodgy it's unreal.

We have 34 games to play and they're four points clear of the relegation zone.

Man City win this league comfortably unless they're hit with a mammoth points deduction. Southampton, Everton and any one from us, Wolves, Brentford or Ipswich to go down based on what I've seen thus far. I actually think we stay up comfortably if either Cooper realises we've got a decent side here or gets replaced by someone who does.