With Italy having failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in decades, its football reached a new low. And it’s time to embrace a new reality: With the downfall of traditional heavyweights, newer teams can rebuild themselves from scratch
Remember the good old days when a clique of footballing nations, namely Brazil and Argentina from South America and Italy, Germany, Spain, France, England, Holland from Europe used to be there and thereabout at the latter stages of the World CupIJ
While that has been changing for a while, at least over the past two World Cups when newer teams have started emerging, this trend took its biggest hit earlier this week when four-time champion, Italy, failed to reach the World Cup for the first time since 1958 and only the second time ever.
Italy, the champion in 2006, has been a near passenger in the previous two World Cups, suffering the first round of exit, but its failure to qualify is another thing altogether.
Joining Italy on the sidelines will be another heavyweight, Holland, although its fate was sealed much earlier. Holland has been less regular at the World Cup, compared to the Italians, yet, everyone always looks forward to their presence whenever the showpiece event begins.
Uruguay in 1930 and 1950 apart, the World Cup has always been won by a long-time football heavyweight. And Holland too could and probably should have been on the list, but currently, it possess the unfortunate record of having reached three World Cup finals and failing to win any.
This means, rather unfairly, that the focus of the world often remains on this select clique of teams, though a lot has changed over the past few years. While it has been a slow process, the stranglehold held by major European teams on the game has reduced. Not in its entirety one may say, Germany, France and Spain are amongst the favourites to win the 2018 World Cup. But those days, when one could simply close their eyes and predict the quarterfinal line-up comprising footballing bigwigs, is now over.
Portugal was one of the first “outsider” countries to break the shackles — they reached the Euro 2000 semifinals and famously won the 2016 Euros in France. They are now widely considered to be a top contender every time a major tournament comes about.
Belgium is, on paper, one of the world’s most exciting teams and close to every member of their starting XI is based at a top club outside its home country. Croatia, despite having to go through a playoff, is another country which, on paper, has a very gifted side.
To some extent, this writer feels that the scrapping of the “three-foreigner rule”, which made it mandatory for European clubs to field only three players who did not belong to the country where the club was based, has been largely beneficial towards the rise of newer countries, especially in Europe. The rule was lifted midway through the 1995-96 season and came into effect from the 1996-97 season.
Given the restrictions on the number of foreigners who could have been picked, clubs were wary about recruitment. More often than not, it was the stronger countries that gained the most. An example being West Germany’s lothar Matthäus and Andreas Brehme playing for Inter Milan while the Dutch troika of Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit played for AC Milan in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
With this rule now lifted, more and more players from all over the world can go and ply their trade freely with the best clubs in the best leagues. This has no doubt benefitted the growth of many countries outside the traditional heavyweights of Europe.
Come the end of tournaments, one would still see one of the ‘big’ teams lifting the prize, there is no doubt other teams are now becoming more competitive. As earlier mentioned, a team like Portugal, which had not even qualified for the World Cup between 1986 and 2002, is today considered a footballing heavyweight, while Belgium has emerged from a lean patch in the 2000s, to now be considered as one of the dark horses to lift the trophy next year.
Given that neither country has a particularly lucrative domestic league, the fact that unlike the past, the options to play abroad now exist more freely, it has helped in their development. Due to the fact that many of our generations have grown up at a time when countries like Italy and Holland would frequently participate in the latter stages of major tournaments, their absence from the 2018 World Cup will be a somewhat unfamiliar experience. However, nostalgia and reality are two different things altogether, nostalgia does not play any country’s qualifying matches and in all due fairness, countries like Portugal, Belgium and Croatia are far more likely to perform at the World Cup next year than Italy or Holland would.
For the purists, a World Cup without Italy and Holland will feel empty. However, it is an opportunity for both countries to go and rebuild themselves from scratch. At the same time, perhaps, it is time for footballing neutrals to start embracing new forces taking shape.
(The writer is a sports management professional)