Back on topic - what do think of the actual proposals.
Hard to know how it would pan out yet, but in many respects this seems quite sensible. I seems to be a way of giving some kind of meaning to what would otherwise be pretty pointless friendly matches. I guess where it may fall down is that teams will no longer be able to use friendlies to check progress against better sides, or if already good, offer opportunities for lower ranked sides to have a high profile fixture. Also will this cram out the fixture list so much that European teams never get the opportunity to play non-European sides except in the World Cup finals itself.
Another advantage is that it would allow some countries to actually have the chance of 'winning' something or making a competitive final.
So, for example, Finland have never qualified for a major finals tournament (World Cup or Euros) from the qualifying tournament. So their history consists entirely of entering the qualifying tournament - finishing well down the table, and that's kind of it. And then they do it again 2 years later.
Under this proposal they'd enter a 3rd tier tournament with other comparable teams, would have a decent chance of making the semi's, final or even winning every once in a while. And in doing so give much more emphasis to their international matches and some joy to their fans.
If you think about club football, there must be precious few (if any) clubs that over the past 60 years have failed to have a season with promotion, relegation, winning one of the divisions, making a play-off. Yet that would be the equivalent of Finland's international record since the 1950s.
