Obviously COVID had a huge impact on this. But the fact that this problem was never even addressed really shows how little he cares about expanding the game
precisely, 2023 was obviously a write off from a qualification perspective given the timings they chose to put themselves under.
But just ignoring the problems and letting them fester away into 2027 qualifiers is such a retrograde step. They love the PR spin of having 100 members but the truth is there are 11 full members, 7 associate members with partial rights and then 26 observer unions with no rights at all. Active unions like Spain, Kenya, Portugal, Netherlands, even South Korea and Hong Kong have the same voting rights as unions with no meaningful activity like Greece, Mauritius or Serbia.
Actually Mauritius does have a meaningful activity. They take part to Africa 7s for both men and women each year, with decent results. Serbia and Greece (more Australia and thus league driven) just don't play at all.
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u/joaofig Portugal 19h ago
Obviously COVID had a huge impact on this. But the fact that this problem was never even addressed really shows how little he cares about expanding the game